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PASTIME OF LEARNING, 


iKKTCiir.S OF R 


>CENES. 


soci'^v ol ( li'Jr^r.. I iove to mark the germs 
of iinecuou i nig .'. u ci.a;;.-.!- ' ; the young idea putting 
forth its shoots; anci i', • embr -, of a thousand nameless 
ilroliii.-s iinfoklius then e.3 to *';?v.." 


2ii (I Si 1 n : 

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1831. 


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NORTH CAROLINA STATE UN 


IVERSITY LIBRARIES 


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This BOOK may be kept out TWO WEEKS 
ONLY, and is subject to a fine of FIVE 
CENTS a day thereafter/ It is due on the 
day indicated below: 3H'l 30 



THE 


PASTIME OF LEARNING, 


SKETCHES OF RURAL SCENES. 


" I love the society of children. I love to mark the germs of 
affection rising into character ; the young idea putting forth its 
shoots; and the embryos 'of a thousand nameless feelings un- 
folding themselves to vievir." 


33 s 1 n : 

COTTONS AND BARNARD, 

184 WASHINGTON STREET. 

1831. 


District of Massachusetts , to wit: 

DISTRICT clerk's OFFICE. 

" BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the twenty-fifth day of 
December, A. D. 1830, in the fifty-fourth year of the Inde- 
pendence of the United States of America, Cottons & Bar- 
nard, of the said District, have deposited in this Office the title 
of a book the right whereof they claim as Proprietors, in the 
words following, to wit : — 

" The Pastime of Learning, with Sketches of Rural Scenes. 
' I love the society of children. I love to mark the germs of af- 
fection rising into character ; the young idea putting forth its 
shoots ; and the embryos of a thousand nameless feelings unfold- 
ing themselves to view.' " 

In Conformity to the Act of the. Congress of the United States, 
entitled " An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by se- 
curing the Copies of Maps, Charts and Books, to the Authors 
and Proprietors of such Copies, during the times therein men- 
tioned : " and also to an Act entitled " An Act supplementary 
to an Act, entitled. An Act for the Encouragement of Learn- 
ing, by securing the Copies of Maps, Charts and Books to 
the Authors and Proprietors of such Copies during the times 
therein mentioned ', and extending the benefits thereof to the 
Arts of Designing, Engraving and Etching Historical and other 
Prints." 

JOHN W. DAVIS, 
Clerk of the District of Massachusetts. 


John Cotton, frinter, 184 Washington Street. 


PREFACE 


The following pages are designed to impart, in 
a simple manner, and by familiar conversation, 
some preliminary knowledge upon Botany ; a 
subject regarded by many as beyond the capacity 
of the youthful mind, or not sufficiently interest- 
ing — and unimportant as a branch of female edu- 
cation. 

Of the fallacy of these sentiments I am fully 
convinced, as fa.r as observation has afforded me 
an opportunity of judging, — having seldom known 
children unwilling to relinquish less intellectual 
sports for a walk to collect specimens of this na- 
ture, with a view to the pleasure of investigating 
them. 

3*81.30 


4 PREFACE. 

The UTILITY of this pursuit will not be doubted, 
when it is considered that everything which tends 
to fix the attention expands the mind ; and that as 
the Physical powers are invigorated by a pleasant 
ramble, the Intellectual are strengthened, and the 
taste improved and elevated to a perception of the 
Beauties of Nature, which may ultimately lead to 
the most important of all pursuits — the Know- 
ledge, Love and Reverence of their Divine 
Creator, 


THE 


PASTIME OF LEARNING 


CHAPTER I. 

" They will not blush, who have a parent's heart, 
To take in youthful play a youthful part." 

"Mother," said Caroline, as she entered 
Mrs. G.'s apartment, '' we are all in readiness 
for our Botanical Excursion." 

'' I am pleased at your being so punctual 
to the hour," returned Mrs. G. ; " but may 
I be assured that you were correct in your 
exercises to-day .^" 

" Yes, mother, I rose an hour earlier tlian 
\is\m\ this morning, that I might finish my 
studies and recitations in season for our walk, 
2 

Library 
N. C. State College 


6 THE TASTIIVIE OF LEARNING. 

with a view to commencing the study of Bo- 
tany this evening. Sister Anno said that as I 
was so correct with my lessons, and as there 
was sufficient time, she would then give me a 
little instruction." 

^' Of course you will not be at a loss for 
an answer, 1 hope, when your father again 
questions you upon your studies." 

** I think," said Caroline, " I should have 
answered more readily last evening, had I 
not staid so late, and laughed and talked so 
much with Mary and Ellen Neville, tliat 
put everything I had learned out of my 
head." 

^'Perhaps," said Mrs. G., "you so much 
anticipated the visit, as to direct your 
thoughts more to that than to your studies. 
This divided your attention ; and though it 
might not have prevented your gaining suf- 
ficient knowledge of the subject for recitation 
at the moment, rendered it too superficial for 
your memory to retain. — Where is Anne, 
that she is not here to walk with us ? She 


BOTANY. 7 

is always so punctual she may with propriety 
be called clock-work." 

Emma just then entered, saying " Anne 
wished her mother to excuse her detaining 
them, as a friend of hers had sent some sreen- 
house plants, with the request that she would 
write tlieir names and — something else, but I 
do not recollect what it was." 

" The classes and orders, I suppose," said 
Caroline. 

'' Oh yes, those were the words ; what did 
she mean, mother ? I wish I could know 
everything." 

" With patience and perseverance, my dear 
child, you will acquire, I trust, much use- 
ful knowledge. It is a good omen in one of 
vour age to feel a desire to be tauo^ht. To 
explain to you the meaning of classes and 
orders, I must ask if you recollect the China 
asters that grew in our garden last summer." 

" Those large flowers, some blue and some 
pink, that the frost killed } " 

"It is to those I allude," replied Mrs. 


8 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

G. ; " and you recollect no doubt the yellow 
Dandelions that grew in the fields ? " 

" I recollect them," said Emma, " and 
after a little while, instead of the yellow 
flowers, there was a round ball of something 
white, like down, upon the stalks. I used to 
breathe upon it, and it would all fly in the 
air like feathers." 

" Those were the seeds ; but it is to the 
flower I allude. Do you recollect any re- 
semblance between the Dandelion and the 
China aster ? " 

'' Yes, mother ; but one was larger than 
the other. They looked alike, and yet they 
seemed difierent." 

" That is true ; they were of difierent or- 
ders. I cannot explain to you in what res- 
pects they difier, until you obtain some know- 
ledge of Botany. It is necessary for you, 
Caroline, to know, that this class of plants is 
called compound, from the circumstance of 
each flower liaving a number of florets con- 


BOTANY. 9 

nected together, and the flowers radiate. 
Emma would term them round, I suppose." 

*' But not round like Charles's ball ; more 
like a pancake, I should think," said Emma. 

" No bad simile for one of your age, my 
child. Do you recollect the Buttercups you 
used to gather last summer ? " 

" And put on Henry's chin," replied Em- 
ma, " to see if he loved butter." But a sigh 
escaped her mother, who had, the summer 
previous, been summoned to mourn the early 
loss of one of the loveliest of Nature's works ; 
which Emma observing, was grieved that she 
had named her little brother, which she was 
careful to avoid doing, even inadvertently, 
in her mother's presence, — as the cloud that 
passed over her face, and the starting tear, 
though suppressed, could not always be con- 
cealed from the quick sight of childhood. 
After a brief pause, Caroline, who entered 
into her mother's feelings, and had dearly 
loved the little Henry, asked if she should 
see if Anne was not almost ready for the walk. 


10 THE PASTIME OP LEARNING. 

But Mrs. G. replied it was unnecessary, 
as no doubt she would soon appear ; and in 
the interval she would explain to them what 
was understood in Botany by different classes. 
" Do you recollect, Emma, whether the 
China aster and Buttercup resembled each 
other as nearly as the former resembled tlie 
Dandelion } " 

Emma said she recollected they were very 
different. 

Mrs. G. remarked, " They belong to dis- 
tinct classes ; but the China aster and Dan- 
delion to different orders of the same class." 
She added, " I hear Anne on the stairs ; we 
will now commence our walk, which must 
be short, it is so late." Anne regretted hav- 
ing been obliged to label the flowers at^that 
time, but the person who brought them was 
ordered to wait till they Avere finished. Em- 
ma took her basket on her arm, ''expecting 
to collect a great many flowers," she said ; but 
Mrs, G. told them not to be disappointed if 


«OTANY. 11 

they found but few in bloom at this early 
part of the season. 

••' I will be your guide," said Caroline, 
" to a delightful spot, where the other day I 
saw some violets peeping through the green 
leaves." Mrs. G. inquired of Anne whether 
in her lesson to Caroline upon Botany, she 
commenced with the elementary organs. 
Anne replied that she did, but having no fresh 
ilowers she was obliged to exhibit specimens 
from her herbarium, which though not as 
easy to explain, Caroline appeared to under- 
stand .perfectly well. 

Emma at that moment came runninsj to 
them, and exclaimed, " See tliis beautiful 
pink flower, and smell how sweet it is ; I was 
just upon the point of stepping on it before 
I saw the flower, it was so covered with those 
large coarse leaves." 

'• It is the Epigaea repens," said Anne to 
Caroline, " and known by the common name 
of Trailing Arbutus." 

'' And is the first of the season," added 


12 THE PASTIME OF 'LEARNING. 

Mrs. G., " that blossoms in the open air with 
any perfume. I always hail it with pleasure 
from the circumstance of its having afford- 
ed much gratification to a young friend of 
mine, whose life was gradually sinliing under 
that insidious and ever fatal disease, to which 
so many in this climate fall victims. When 
too weak to enjoy the society of her friends, 
she received with delight their offerings of 
this nature ; and while viewing its beauties 
and inhaling its fragrance, her languid coun- 
tenance beamed with expression and mo- 
mentary animation." 

Anne said, " She must long have cultivated 
a taste for the beauties of Nature, to be capa- 
])le of receiving so much pleasure from them 
in so exhausted a state." 

Mrs. G. replied, that " She was an enthu- 
siastic admirer of everything created by our 
Heavenly Father ; flowers, shrubs, and fo- 
rest trees, and indeed everything that grows, 
elevated her ardent feelings to the High 
Source of alh For she was religious in the 


BOTANY. 13 

strict sense of the word ; her heart glowed 
with love to the Father of Mercies, and to 
all around her ; and she sought to obey Him 
by following the precepts and imitating the 
example of our Saviour, whose Gospel she 
made her daily study and guide. I have 
often thought," continued Mrs. G., " that 
Caroline " (who was at a distance with Em- 
ma) " has much of her temperament ; and 
could it be directed with equal judgment and 
stability as that dear departed friend's, I 
should have no fears for her happiness." 

" I think," replied Anne, ''she is less vo- 
latile than she was a few months since, and 
has as much stability of character as you can 
expect at her age, with her buoyant spirits." 

'' I have flattered myself that is the case," 
said Mrs. G., '' but there is so much to dis- 
trust in the opinions of parental fondness, 
that my fear of being deceived by it will J 
trust quicken my vigilance, should I be in 
danger of remitting it, over her pleasures or 

her more important pursuits ; both of which, 

2# 


14 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

in a character of so much enthusiasm as 
hers, requires unwearied attention to regulate 
and direct." 

Caroline and Emma now joined them, and 
as the air suddenly became chilly, prudence 
dictated their return home ; when Mrs. G. 
recommended it to them to select their 
handsomest specimens of the flowers and put 
in water, lest they should wither. No soon- 
er had Caroline and Emma arranged them 
in the bulb glasses, and cleared their baskets 
of the straws and dry leaves, than their father 
and Charles (whom they wished to surprise 
with the view of the first field-flowers of 
the season, tastefully arranged) entered. Mr. 
G. usually returned in season to dine ; but 
on that day business detained him in Boston 
till late in the afternoon, at the hour when 
Charles's school was out, who usually walk- 
ed or rode in the Hourly home, but on that 
day accompanied his father. 

" See, father," said Caroline and Emma 
both in a breath, '' the beautiful wild flowers 


BOTANY. 15 

we have gathered in the fields ; this is a Vio- 
let, and that a Dog-tooth Violet," — ^' and 
here is the Epigaea," said Caroline to Charles. 
" Anne says that is the botanical name of this 
sweet flower ; it is not difficult to pronounce, 
and r am sure it is a more agreeable name 
than trailing arbtUiis.''^ "• The calyx, father, 
is the outer covering of the flovv^er, and is 
usually green, or not colored, — in botany 
ffreen signifies no color. Anne has eiven me 
a lesson to-day ; I began with the rudiments." 

'' In the evening, my dear," said her 
father, " we will join in your amusement. I 
think you regard the study of Botany as 
such > " 

" Indeed I do. To pick flowers to pieces, 
and examine them, and admire their different 
parts and arrangement, seems more like play 
than study." 

'' It gives me pleasure to have you view 

it in that light," replied Mr. G. ; " and I 

iiope your taste will always lead you, in your 

hours of relaxation, to seek those amusements 

3 


16 * THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

in which instruction and improvement are 
blended." 

Emma asked her mother if she might learn 
Botany with Caroline ; to which Mrs. G. 
gave her consent, adding, that if she felt too 
sleepy in the evening, Caroline would in- 
struct her the following day, and reserve 
some of the flowers for that purpose." 

Mr. G. inquired for Julia, who was always 
the first to welcome his return with her in- 
fantile caresses. Mrs. G. said she had given 
permission to Sarah to take her with her to 
a friend of hers, adding, " she considers Julia 
such a phoenix, that it is a discredit in her 
opinion to every one's judgment who does 
not think the same." 

Emma wanted to know what phoenix meant. 

"It is the name of a rare bird," replied 
Mrs. G., " and is frequently applied to some- 
thing very good, or beautiful." 

Julia soon came jumping in, and gave an 
account of all she had seen and heard, amus- 
ing her parents with childhood's inno- 


BOTANY. 17 

cent prattle, and frolicking with Anne and 
the younger members of the family circle. 

After the tea-things were removed, they 
seated themselves around the table, eager to 
commence their interesting employment of 
dissecting and examining the flowers ; but 
Emma's drooping eyelids soon indicated that 
she required " tired nature's sweet restorer ; " 
and though half unwilling to quit the flowery 
scene^ she gave her usual parting salutation 
to each, with all of whom the gentle girl 
was an acknowledged favorite, and retired 
to her room ; but not to her bed until after 
having knelt as was her daily practice by 
the side of her mother, and offered thanks to 
her Heavenly Father for all his m.ercies, — 
imploring his forgiveness for what she had 
done and thought amiss, and commending 
herself, her parents, her brother and sisters, 
to his protection through the night, in that 
simple language which we have our Saviour's 
promise to little children for believing is ever 
graciously heard and accepted. Mrs. G. left 


18 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

the apartment of her younger children, (Julia 
being already in a sweet slumber,) applying 
to them those simple lines of King Charles I. : 

" He that guards thee, he that keeps, 

Never shimbers, never sleeps ; 
Then close thine eyes in peace, and sleep secure, 
IVo sleep so sweet as thine, no rest so sure." 

On her return to the parlor, Charles was 
inquiring of Caroline what she understood 
by rudiments. She replied with so mucli 
self-complacency that he could not forbear 
smiling. "It is the first principles, to be 
sure, the elements of a science. I hope you 
do not suppose, Charles, I would use a word 
I do not understand." 

" No," Charles replied, " though you have 
such a partiality for long words." 

Mr. G. improved this opportunity to re^ 
mark, '•' There is no species of affectation that 
subjects persons to more deserved ridicule 
than the folly of exposing their ignorance in 
using inappropriate expressions, to which 
tliey are wnable to affix a clear md correct 


BOTANY. 19 

definition. There is a certain degree of re- 
finement in language, which should early be 
cultivated, that is easy, and flows unsought — 
proceeding from correct ideas of the subject 
and a cultivated mind, ratlier than from stu- 
died elegance or an ostentatious display of 
knowledge ; for which reason, it has uniform- 
ly been my aim to select for your perusal 
those books which are written in a style 
conspicuous for simplicity and purity. When 
two words implying the same idea present 
themselves, it is well to choose the most ele- 
gant when you can do it without appearing 
fastidious or over wise to those Avith whom 
you converse." 

Caroline said she did not understand the 
term he had just used. 

" Seek it in your dictionary, my dear," 
rejoined her father, ^' and do not allow your- 
self to pass any word in your reading, or in 
the conversation of others, that you do not 
fully understand, without recourse to your 
dictionary." 


20 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

Mrs. G. remarked that in the study of 
Botany they would find it a peculiarly neces- 
sary practice, and she thought the habit, 
once acquired, might prove useful in strength- 
ening other virtues, of no minor importance 
at any period of life. 

" You allude to patience and perseverance, 
I suppose," said Charles. 

-' True," said Mrs. G. ; '' for the most bril- 
liant talents, without the aid of these humble 
but sterling virtues, would be found of little 
use to the possessor, and greatly diminish 
his influence over others." 

'' Fastidious," said Caroline, looking in 
the dictionary, " is squeamish, over nice. 
Though it is a long word, Charles, do not you 
think it the most agreeable to use ? " 

Charles acknowledged he did. 

Anne had been wiping and arranging the 
flowers, and Mrs. G. had selected an Epigaea, 
which she requested Caroline to explain to 
her. Caroline, after saying, in reply to her 
mother's question, '' There are seven ele- 


BOTANY. 21 

mentary parts comprised in a flower — ^the 
Calyx, Corol, Stamens, Pistil, Pericarp, 
Seed, and Receptacle ; " carefully took oft' 
the outer covering, which she told her mother 
was the calyx (Fig. 1),* but there was an inter- 
nal green leaf which puzzled her. Anne ob- 
serving it, remarked that among the dried 
specimens she had shown her, there was no 
example of a double calyx (2), of which this 
is one. '' The outer one, three-leaved," she 
continued, " is a polyphyllous calyx (3) ; the 
inner one, which you see is only parted, but 
is whole at the base, which term implies the 
foundation, is an example of the monophyl- 
lous calyx " (4). 

Mrs. G. said, " You will recollect these 
distinctions when the different kinds of ca- 
lyxes are explained." 

To which Caroline assented ; and then pro- 
ceeding, '' The colored blossoms," she said, 
" which I used to call the leaves, constitute 
the corol or petals " (5) . 

* See Plate. 


22 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

Anne asked if she would tell how the co- 
rol was situated. 

" Generally within or above the calyx," 
Caroline replied ; but on looking at the Ery- 
thronium or Dog-tooth Violet, she said, " I 
do not understand about this flower — I see 
no calyx." 

Anne told her that was a naked flower — a 
term applied to those flowers which are des- 
titute of a calyx ; " and here," she added, 
taking up the Elm blossom, '^ is an example 
of a calyx without a corol, which flower is 
termed incomplete" (6). 

Caroline next examined the stamens (7), 
saying, " These are knobs, of a mealy or 
glutinous substance, generally placed on 
thread-like organs, and usually situated with- 
in the corol, and externally respecting the 
central organ." As she separated one from 
the flower, she perceived some dust on her 
fingers, which Mrs. G. said was the pollen, 
or dust, which is contained in the anther (8). 
Caroline asked Anne to point out the anther 


BOTANY. 23 

to her. She then said, " The anther is the 
knob which terminates the stamens, and con- 
tains the pollen or dust." 

Anne told her, " The fibrous organ which 
elevates the anther, as you see, from the base 
of the flower, is termed the filament "- (9). 

"Do you now understand the constituent 
parts of the flower ? " asked Mrs. G. 

'• Let me see," said Caroline ; " yes, mo- 
ther, now I recollect : there are three parts 
which constitute the stamens, — the filaments, 
which have a thread-like appearance — the an- 
ther, which contains the dust — and the pollen, 
which resembles powder or dust." 

" You understand it ; but I must add, the 
filament is sometimes wanting, in which case 
the anther is placed on the base of the flower, 
and is termed sessile^ which implies sitting 
down." 

'' Sessile anther," repeated Caroline ; " I 
think I shall recollect the term." 

The pistil (10) next engaged her attention, 
which she recollected was the central organ 
3* 


24 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

of the flower. " See, mother," she said, 
after severing it from the stem, " this round 
knob at the bottom of the pistil ; is this a ses- 
sile anther ? " 

"No, my dear, that is the germ (11), and 
is always placed at the base of the pistil. It 
is this organ which produces the pericarp and 
seed, and is the rudiment of another plant. 
Perhaps you recollect noticing, last summer, 
the pods, as you called them, of the violets, 
which were partly opened, exposing the seed 
so regularly arranged as to call forth your 
admiration." 

" Is it possible," said Caroline, " this little 
germ," as she separated one of them from 
the violet, " could ever become as large and 
full of seeds as that pod ? " 

" Equally possible, my dear, as that the 
acorn you noticed a few days since should 
produce those noble trees which afford us so 
cool and refreshing a shelter on a warm sum- 
mer's day." 

" How wonderful," exclaimed Caroline, 

Library 


BOTANY. 2o 

" and how delightful it is to know so much 
about botany ! " 

Charles told her she had better defer con- 
gratulating herself upon her knowledge^ until 
she had acquired rather more upon the 
subject. 

Caroline, laughing, said she knew enough 
already to enjoy it ; and requested Anne to 
explain the other parts of the pistil. Anne 
pointed to her the style (12) and the stigma 
(13), saying, " The latter you will perceive 
is very conspicuous in the Lily, which will 
blossom next month ; but in some flowers it 
is scarcely discernible — for instance, in the 
Indian corn. The style answers the same 
purpose to the stigma in the pistil, as does the 
filament to the anther in the stamens — that of 
elevating it. Should the style be wanting, can 
you tell me what will designate the stigma ? " 

After a moment's thought, Caroline asked 
if it would not be termed a sessile stigma. 
To which inquiry Anne replied in the affirm- 
ative. 

4 


26 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

Caroline, pointing to the horn on the corol 
of the Violet, asked an explanation of it. 

Mrs. G. remarked, "Any additional ap- 
pendage to the rudiments of a flower which 
contains or secretes honey, whether in the 
form of a gland, cup, or horn, is termed' a 
nectary " (14). 

Caroline reminded Anne that she had not 
explained to her the receptacle. 

Anne replied, " That is the point of con- 
nection or base, which sustains the other six 
parts, at the end of the stem. It is subdivid- 
ed into proper — which belongs to one flower 
only ; and common — one that serves to con- 
nect several distinct florets, as the sun- 
flower." 

" Are there any other distinctions in the 
receptacle ? " Caroline asked. 
"" Anne replied, ^' There are : the filiform, or 
thread-like receptacle, that connects florets in 
a spike, as in the heads of wheat — w"hich is 
termed rachis ; the central column, which at- 
taches the seeds within a capsule, distinguish- 


BOTANY. 27 

ed by the term columella ; and the elongated 
receptacle, that proceeds from a spathe, as in 
the onion, — constitute the subdivisions of the 
receptacle. The pericarp is the shell or pod 
which covers the seed ; but it is not essential, 
as the seeds of some plants are naked." 

" And the seed," said Caroline, " is the 
essential part, containing the rudiments of 
a new plant." 

Which subject, Mrs. G. said, might afford 
a copious subject for moralizing. "Do you 
recollect the passage in St. John's Gospel, the 
perusal of which excited so much interest in 
Charles and yourself ? ' Except a grain of 
wheat fall to the ground and die, it abideth 
alone ; but if it die, it bringeth forth much 
fruit.' " 

'' I do," said Caroline, " and your remark- 
ing that if any further proof Avas necessary, 
in addition to the resurrection of our Sa- 
viour, that after death our bodies would be 
raised again, this passage would furnish it, 
and the blessed assurance that our bodies 


28 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

would be more glorious, and our minds more 
expanded, as the plant is more beautiful than 
the seed." 

'' Yes," said Charles, •' and that as the 
plant increases in growth, and affords nour* 
ishment or shelter, in like manner, you said, 
our glory would continue to augment and 
be diffused to others." 

It was a source of unspeakable happiness 
to Mrs. G. to know tliat her children trea- 
sured in their minds reflections of this nature. 
^' But you must also recollect," she said, 
^' that ' seed in the bosom of the earth shoots 
weeds as well as flowers,' and that it must 
depend upon strict watchfulness and untiring 
exertions, together with frequent fervent 
prayer for guidance and strength, whether, 
' when the fair spring of immortality shall 
dawn,' you, my beloved children, will be 
numbered with that ' good seed which bring- 
eth forth fruit unto perfection.' With these 
remarks," she added, though not without 
a silent ejaculation that they might be blest 


BOTANY. 29 

to them, " we will close this evening's pas- 
time." 

The domestics of the family were then sum- 
moned ; and Mr. G., as was his nsual cus- 
tom, read a few passages in the Scriptures, 
making hrief and appropriate reflections 
which Avere suggested by the events of the 
past day, and closing with a concise and 
solemn prayer. 


CHAPTER II. 

^^ The places where they smiling sate 
Are left unto us desolate." 

'^ Thou ever hast upon me smiled, ' 

Thou wilt not now forsake thy child." 

Before proceeding farther with Caroline 
in the study which afforded her so much 
pleasure, and in which I hope my young 


30 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

readers feel some degree of interest, a brief 
narrative of the events connected with the 
family of Mr. and Mrs. G., and a delineation 
of their characters, will not perhaps, be un- 
acceptable. 

Miss G., who has been introduced as Anne, 
was the daughter of Mr. G.'s younger bro- 
ther, who had in early life married an amia- 
ble and accomplished woman, Vv hose, expand- 
ing beauties, like a summer flower, had 
scarcely reached maturity, when she was 
called to a higher sphere, a few months after 
having given birth to this their only child ; 
leaving her disconsolate husband, after the 
enjoyment of a brief period, of domestic hap- 
piness that had been more like romance than 
reality, almost broken-hearted. To a consti- 
tution naturally delicate, and with feelings 
susceptible in no common degree— as a flower 
imperceptibly decaying by the ravages of an 
unseen canker— Mr. G.'s health gradually 
declined under this blight of early-promised 
felicity, which neither reason, nor religion, 


DOMESTIC SKETCHES. 31 

nor his sense of obligation to his child, 
enabled him to sustain with the firmness 
which he was sensible as a Christian he 
ought to command. The sincere penitence 
he manifested for having made an earthly 
object so much the idol of his affections, 
though salutary to him as a Christian in re- 
storing peace of mind and affording hopes of 
pardoning mercy, failed in regard to any be- 
neficial effects upon his health. Yet he bless- 
ed the hand that had " sent the rod," fully 
realizing 

" That what for evils \vc mistake, 
God will our greatest blessings make." 

After languishing a few years, he was sum- 
moned to " that bourne whence no traveller 
returns," leaving his orphan child, at five 
years of age, to the joint care of his brother 
(between whom and himself there had exist- 
ed uninterrupted affection), and his widowed 
mother, who since the period of his mar- 
riage had resided with his family. 


32 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

After commending his child to the or- 
phan's God, with a firm reliance upon His 
protecting care and guidance through the va- 
ried scenes of life, it was his parting injunc- 
tion to his mother and brother, to check in 
her every budding tendency they might dis- 
cover to an undue attachment to earthly ob- 
jects or pleasures, and early to embue her 
mind with the love of religion, and to dispose 
her to the cheerful performance of its duties 
— christian, relative, and social — as the only 
foundation for usefulness and happiness. 

Anne's tender heart was grieved almost 
to bursting, when she saw the chair unoccu- 
pied in which her father had been accus- 
tomed to sit ; for he had never been obliged 
to confine himself wholly to his bed, and he 
even breathed his last farewell to the few 
friends by whom he was surrounded, while 
sitting in his chair. 

'' ' Thy will, not mine, be done,' he said, 
As from its load the spirit fled 
To where the weary rest." 


DOMESTIC SKETCHES. 


Anne, after having repeated her prayer in a 
kneeling posture at her father's side — as was 
her custom from infancy — and received his 
blessing and last paternal kiss, had but a 
few moments previous sunk into a sweet 
slumber, with visions of childhood's bliss 
passing in her mind, and knew not the grief 
that pervaded their dwelling till the next 
morning, when on going to her father's 
apartment to give him her usual salutation, 
his lifeless form met her view. She said he 
was smiling in his sleep ; but when she press- 
ed his cold cheeks, asking him to awake, and 
was told his was the sleep of death, and 
that he would not again awake in this world, 
her grief knew no bounds, . until her grand- 
mother explained to her the nature of death 
and the resurrection in a manner adapted to 
her comprehension, and impressed upon her 
young mind the solemn scene, and the neces- 
sity of her making every exertion to become 
good, amiable, and obedient, — assuring her, 
if she was so, when she died she would be 


34 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

raised to glory, and dwell forever with her 
parents in the kingdom of her Heavenly Fa- 
ther. The belief that she should see her 
father again, soothed her grief; atid she often 
repeated, " I shall see my dear father again if 
I am only a good child ; and he used to tell 
me if I tried to become good, and prayed to 
God very often, he would make me good and 
happy while I live, and afterwards take me 
to heaven." And it was not long before she 
could speak of her parent with the same 
composure as if he was still living, and ab- 
sent ; — so quickly are the emotions of sorrow 
effaced from the almost instinctive gaiety of 
childhood. 


'• The tear down childhood's cheek that fiowst, 
Is like the dew-drop on the rose ; 
When' npxt the summer breeze comes by, 
And waves the bush, the flower is dry." 


DOMESTIC SKETCHES. 35 


CHAPTER III. 


*■' Of all the relations in life, that of parents and children in 
the most holy." 

" Domestic Happiness ! thou only bliss 
Of Paradise that has survived the fall." 

As soon as circumstances permitted, the 
dowager, Mrs. G., with her grandchild, in 
compliance with the wishes of her now only 
son, became a resident of his family, — feeling 
inadequate, at her advanced age, solely to 
direct the youthful mind of Anne, and teach 
her "young idea how to shoot," though a 
woman of superior abilities and firmness 
of character, and well qualified to aid with 
her counsel in the important duty which now 
devolved upon them. They were soon domes- 
ticated at the house of the elder^r. G., who 
had been two or three years married to a wo- 
man of amiable disposition, correct judgment, 
and well-regulated principles ; of whom it is 
sufficient commendation to^ay she was worthy 


36 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

of his choice, and between whom, before 
their marriage, there had been a long and 
mutual attachment. Anne had already en- 
twined herself around their affections, by her 
little endearing attentions, and her sweet and 
affectionate disposition. There was a sim- 
plicity and artlessness in her character, and a 
keen perception of right and wrong, remark- 
able in one of her age ; and it was with much 
satisfaction that Mr. and Mrs. G. witnessed a 
growing fondness, like that of brother and sis- 
ter, between her and their little Charles, a 
child about a year old. They regarded them 
both with parental love, and equally as their 
children bestowed on them by the bounty of 
Providence, and resolved that Anne should 
share their property and all other privileges 
as such. Her father's inability for so long. a 
time to attenU to business, togetlier with the 
expenses inseparable from a lingering illness, 
had so exhausted his funds, that on the set- 
tlement of his estate it was found there was 
only sufficient property to satisfy his credit- 


DOMESTIC SKETCHES. 37 

ors. Thus Anne was in every point of view 
dependent upon her grandmother and uncle. 
Her father had foreseen that such would be 
the result of this investigation of his pecu- 
niary affairs ; but he regarded wealth as a 
blessing, only as it affords the means of edu- 
cation, and of contributing to the comfort of 
those around us, — and as his brother's fortune 
was ample, he felt no uneasiness with respect 
to her means of support. It was his desire 
that her education should be solids rather than 
showy ; that she might be trailed to usefulness 
and virtue, and render herself agreeable in 
the domestic circle ; and particularly, that 
correct principles, and such a love of religion, 
should be instilled into her mind, for the 
foundation upon which to build the super- 
structure, as would equally prepare her for 
happiness, whether in adversity or prosperi- 
ty, — sensible as he was, from his own expe- 
rience, that no situation in life can exempt 
us from trials — and though our path may be 
Strewed with flowers, there are ever some 


38 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

thorns scattered among them, to remind us 
that " this is not our rest," and to quicken 
us in the pursuit of those unalloyed and ne- 
ver-failing blessings which are promised to 
all who diligently seek them in the unde- 
viating paths of wisdom and goodness. 

As years passed on, Anne's opening virtues 
and expanding mind amply rewarded Mr. and 
Mrs. G., — whom she regarded with the filial 
affection of an own child, and always ad- 
dressed as parents, — for their unremitted care 
and attention. Docile, and of a good capa- 
city, she made steady progress in all the ne- 
cessary branches of female education, under 
the instruction of the best teachers which Mr. 
G. could select. Her early-disciplined feel- 
ings, with the ever-present conviction that 
the eye of God was constantly upon her, 
knowing her thou£jhts as well as words and 
actions, together with the habitual practice 
of referring all events to the Supreme Will, 
gave to her character maturity and judgment 
far beyond her years. In her personal ap- 


DOMESTIC SKETCHES. 39 

pearance, as it respects features and complex- 
ion, there was nothing remarkable ; but her 
countenance was of that agreeable description 
which, when once seen, you are induced to 
look at again, and the more you examine it 
the more, interesting it appears, — consisting 
of that indefinable charm which the varied 
expression of the mind, beaming through an 
ingenuous face, ever gives, and renders so 
attractive to the beholder. Her manners, 
easy and graceftd, indicated refinement of 
mind, and tenderness and benevolence of 
feeling. Yet of the few who knew her — be- 
sides her intimate friends — still fewer were 
capable of appreciating her excellence, so un- 
pretending was she, and averse to display, 
and so deeply did humility pervade her cha- 
racter. When she erred, which even in her 
earliest childhood was but seldom, she was 
ever ready to acknowledge her fault, and ask 
forgiveness, not only of her earthly, but her 
heavenly Parent ; and was so watchful to 
avoid a repetition of the offence, that she was 


40 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

seldom known to commit the same fault a 
second time. 

Mr. G.'s family resided, in the winter sea* 
son, at Boston, and passed the summer 
months at their country seat, a few miles dis- 
tant. During the latter period, Mrs. G. su- 
perintended the education of their children, 
with occasional assistance from her mother 
and Mr. G. They had been blessed with 
three children^ in addition to tlie one of their 
adoption. All the happiness of domestic bliss 
which Cowper so beautifully describes in his 
" Task," had been enjoyed by them, when it 
was suddenly interrupted by their being sum- 
moned one morning to the apartment of their 
mother, who had been taken ill when rising. 
Physicians were immediately called, who 
pronounced it an apoplexy, and all human 
eiforts failed in arresting the disorder, which 
in a few hours, and without any apparent 
suffering, terminated her useful and exem- 
plary life. This affliction was severely felt 
by her son and daughter, to whom she was 


DOMESTIC SKETCHES. 41 

unspeakably dear — and to the children, who 
had almost idolized her, so ready was she, 
even at the latest period of her life, to enter 
into their pleasures, and aid in promoting 
them. The neighborhood, also, lost in her a 
benevolent friend, who had a heart to com- 
miserate their sorrows, and a hand ever 
ready to relieve their wants. But Time's 
lenient hand at length restored the family to 
the "even tenor of their ways," their accus- 
tomed domestic pursuits and tender offices of 
charity. They mutually promoted -each 
other's happiness, and, whether in the coun- 
try or the city, they dispensed consolation 
and support to the sick and necessitous, — ■ 
making their Saviour's example their guide, 
and his Gospel their daily study. Unity of 
principle, similarity of taste, and the disposi- 
tion mutually to sacrifice all selfish conside- 
rations, rendered their home almost an earth- 
ly Paradise. 

•' One in heart, in interest, and design, 
They girded each other to the race divine." 

4# 


42 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

Anne had at this period entered her seven- 
teenth year ; and having completed her edu- 
cation, and being desirous of rendering her- 
self useful, to her benefactress, by relieving 
her of some of her cares, obtained her con- 
sent to instruct the younger children. Ano- 
ther daughter had been added to their bless- 
ings in the little Julia, who was at that time 
nearly three years old. She had been from 
her birth a delicate child, of feeble health ; 
but since their late return to the country, 
had become more robust, and was now allow- 
ed to join her sisters in the school room. 

Their happiness had been again interrupted, 
the preceding summer, by the death of their 
son Henry, whom they had promised them- 
selves they should rear for the ministry. He ap- 
peared more serious than other children, and 
it might with propriety be said of him, that 
"he feared the Lord in his youth." But 
their hopes were disappointed. Before he 
had entered his sixth year he was attacked 
with that fatd malady, water on the brain ; 


DOMESTIC SKETCHES. 43 

and after a few days' confinement, was sum- 
moned by his Maker to serve and praise Him 
in a better than an earthly vineyard. Fre- 
quently, when his parents thought him inca- 
pable of the exertion, he would suddenly 
arouse himself and request those present to 
hear him say his prayers. When only two 
and a half years old, he could with accuracy 
explain all the pictures in the Bible, and re- 
peat hymns appropriate to many of them ; 
and a small Testament which he had, and 
was fond of reading, he would not suffer any 
one to place out of his sight during his illness. 
His parents received every needful consola- 
tion under this sad bereavement, from their 
belief in the gracious promise of Christ to 
little children — " of such are me Kmgaom oi 
heaven." 

Charles, a youth just past twelve years, 
was a resolute, active boy, of noble feelings. 
Fond of play, and equally fond of study, he 
engaged with all his powers in whatever he 
undertook. His energy of character and 
4t 


44 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

frankness of disposition were so conspicuous 
in his intelligent countenance, that he won 
the good will of all who saw him, and re- 
tained it by the ardor and affection of his 
feelings. He loved his sisters with tender- 
ness ; and to Anne's judgment and opinion he 
always gave deference upon every subject. 
With Caroline he loved to sport and quiz a 
little ; and sometimes, though seldom, he 
tried to teaze with youthful roguery the gentle 
Emma. He was fond of reading to her, and 
often selected some affecting story to see how 
easily her tender feelings could be wrought 
upon : but he ever repented of his choice, 
when he saw the tears streaming down the 
cheeks of the sensitive child, and would 
throw aside the book, and clasp her in his 
arms, saying, "It is only a fictitious story, 
Emma — it is only in idea, as you used to say 
when you were carrying eggs and butter to 
market, or pretending to wash and iron ; for 
when mother asked, ' What are you doing, 
Emma ? ' you would reply, ' Selling eggs. 


DOMESTIC SKETCHES, 45 

mother,' or 'Washing clothes.' 'But where 
are your clothes, or eggs ? ' she would ask. 
' Oh, only in idea,' you would say." Or he 
would relate Some amusing story, till he saw 
her smiles restored, Avhich it would gladden 
his heart again to see, and to hear her jocund 
laugh. 

Caroline, at this time about ten, was of a 
lively, buoyant character, with ardent feel- 
ings and affectionate disposition. Sincerity, 
and a total exemption from selfishness, and 
abhorrence of it and of anything like guile or 
deceit, were her strong characteristics. Of 
a quick capacity and lively imagination, she 
made rapid proficiency in her studies, when 
disposed to apply herself — which, we regret 
to say, was not always the ca?e. This did 
not arise from aversion to learnihg, for she 
had a thirst for knowledge ; but from the 
love of .novelty, every new pursuit having 
some additional attractions in her eyes to re- 
commend it — and from impatience, wlien she 
met with obstacles iri her lessons difficult to 
5 


46 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

overcome, the consequence of not habituating 
herself to perseverance. Over these failings 
she had, however, the past winter, nearly ob- 
tained a victory ; which had induced her mo- 
ther, as a reward for her diligence and assi- 
duity, to promise her some instruction in 
Botany during her hours for recreation. She 
being very fond of flowers, her mother, Avith 
herusual judgment, resorted to this pursuit 
with the object of indirectly inculcating the 
habits of attention and perseverance, from the 
variety and amusement the study afi'ords ; to 
obtain sufficient knowledge of which, howe- 
ver, to render it interesting, she was sensible it 
would be necessary for her to exercise much 
patience, and acquire the habit of close in- 
vestigation. That it might not supersede her 
other studies of more importance — when de- 
ficient in her attention to them, or remiss in 
her lessons, she forfeited a lesson in Botany. 


DOMESTIC SKETCHES. 47 


CHAPTER IV. 

To fond parents' hearts how sweei is the view 
Of innocent sports which children pursue. 

The showers, which in the month of April 
ape so frequent as to render them proverbial, 
obliged the inhabitants of Oak Grove (the 
name by which Mr. and J^rs. G.'s country 
residence was designated), to suspend for two 
or three days their botanical rambles. The 
younger branches of the family attended to 
their studies only till the dinner hour, unless 
they had been inattentive, and were deficient 
in their lessons ; but the fear of forfeiting 
their walks, or the perusal of a new book 
which Charles frequently brought them from 
the Juvenile Library, or their sewing, and 
more particularly their botanical pleasures, 
stimulated them to attend so closely to their 
studies, that they generally acquitted them- 
selves to the approbation of Anne and their 
parents. 


43 THE PASTIME OF LEARlSTING. 

The afternoon subsequent to Caroline*;^ 
having received her first practical lesson in 
Botany, slie amused herself some time in im- 
parting to Emma as much of the instruction 
she had acquired as her young mind could 
comprehend. Emma was much delighted, 
and told her mother she knew all tlie differ- 
ent parts of the Violet. '' This is the calyx, 
and this the corol," she said, and was pro- 
ceeding, when little Julia begged sister Emma 
would give her that pretty flower, and come 
and play with her ; and as Julia, Emma said, 
had put all she had learned about it out of 
lier head, she would dress Julia's doll if her 
mother would furnish her with something for 
a gown, and would cut it out herself if Anne 
would direct her about it. The materials 
were furnished, and Anne's assistance afford- 
ed ; for Mrs. G. v/ished to encourage every- 
thing of the kind, as tending to render Iier 
children ingenious, which would promote their 
own usefulness, and enable them to direct and 
assist those who had less ingenuity. She had 


DOBIESTIC SKETCHES. ^ 49 

u drawer tliat she called the Charity Drawer, 
ill which were deposited garments for the 
sick or poor, and to which each of her daugh- 
ters was permitted, as a privilege, to depo- 
site something she had completed, once in a 
fortnight. Even Julia had begun to contri- 
bute her mite, having made a little bag, with 
Emma's assistance, for the purpose. Emma 
succeeded in cutting out the doll's frock, by 
a paper pattern which Anne had cut, and who 
fitted it for her that she might make it neatly, 
and thus acquire the habit of doing in the 
best manner whatever she undertook, hov/e~ 
ver trifling in itself. 

Charles, who had returned with his father, 
there being no school on that afternoon, had 
been amusing himself by drawing geometrical 
figures with chalk on a board ; and he told 
Emma " the corner where two lines meet is 
called an angle." He then drew a figure of 
three lines and three angles, and told her that 
was a triangle. After which he drew a cir- 
cular line, and said to Emma, " Put away 


50 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

the doll's frock, and let me put you in this 
circle, and you cannot get out." Emma ask- 
ed if he would block her up with chairs, or 
hold her in. " Neither," he replied. Caro- 
line said no doubt it was some pun ; but as 
Charles would not tell Emma what it was, 
curiosity overcame her caution, and she step- 
ped in. While she was doing this, Charles 
wrote the letter U within the circle. Caro- 
line said that >vas too simple. Charles asked 
lier if she recollected the anecdote of Colum- 
bus and the Egg, and what his reply toTiis 
companioFiS was, when, after they had vainly 
attempted to make it stand on one end, which 
he effected immediately by bruising the shell, 
they said, " Any person could have done that 
who had thought of it." " Yes," said Caro- 
line ; "he answered, ' Any one might have 
discovered another continent, if he had 
tliGUght of it.' Was this punning upon the 
letter U, " she continued, " an original 
thought of yours ? " Charles acknowledged 
it was not ; but he discovered the catch just 


BOTANr. 51 

as he was once going to step over the circle. 
" It was a long time ago," he said, " and I 
have not thought of it since till this after- 
noon." Emma' felt chagrined that she should 
not hare thought of it, when it was so sim- 
ple. Charles said its simplicity was the 
cause ; as in most puns we look for some- 
thing beyond the meaning. He asked her 
to puzzle him, in return, with a conun- 
drum or pun. After a moment's thought, 
she asked, " Why is Dick Strattan's nose like 
a vegetable you love ? " Without much ef- 
fort of thought, as he wished she should ob- 
tain the victory over him, he confessed he 
could not tell. She inquired if he did not 
once say to her tliat it was a twn-iip. Charles, 
laughing, said, "A Turnip ^h a vegetable I 
love. It is a better pun than mine." 

Caroline said to Anne that she thought the 
Turnip blossoms were like their Wall-flower 
then in bloom, only of a different color. 
Anne told her they belonged to the same 
class, and were of the same natural affinity. 


52 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

Caroline said she did not understand that 
term. Anne explained it by saying, " They 
are near relations, of the same tribe of plants, 
or family, and usually possess the same me- 
dicinal virtues." Caroline said, ''How im- 
patient I feel to get to the classes and or- 
ders," and asked her mother what would be 
their next lesson. 

Mrs. G. replied, " The subdivisions of the 
calyx, if suitable specimens can be procured ; 
but you must not allow yourself to be dis- 
appointed if you do not advance very rapidly 
at present, there are so few flowers. Tlie 
month of May will produce all the varieties 
necessary to render you a thorough botanist ; 
and if you proceed gradually, and make 
yourself perfectly familiar with the first prin- 
ciples, your progress will eventually be more 
rapid, as well as more easy to you, and there 
will be less danger of your losing your inter- 
est in the study. There is a degree of mode- 
ration," she continued, "to be exercised in 
all our pleasures and pursuits, if we wish the 


BOTANY. 53 

happiness derived from them to be durable. 
I am far from wishing to check your enthu- 
siasm in any laudable pursuit, but merely to 
regulate it ; as I am satisfied it gives, under 
due restrictions, an elevation to the mind, 
and ennobles the feelings of the heart." 

In the evening Caroline was desirous to ob- 
tain some information respecting the caly^, 
and asked her mother's permission to pluck a 
Rose from her monthly rose-bush for the pur- 
pose, which her mother granted. Charles 
had gathered some Alder blossoms on his re- 
turn from school, and a Snowdrop, as he 
said, "just washed in a shower," from the 
garden. Mrs. G. requested Caroline to ex- 
plain the distinction between a monophyllons 
and polyphyllous calyx, that had been included 
in her previous lesson, and which she recol- 
lected to her mother's satisfaction. Mrs. G. 
then described to her the perianth (15), which 
she said was the kind of calyx belonging to 
the Rose, " consisting, s^s you see," she con- 
tinued, " of fivie green leaves, which are con- 


54 THE PASTIME OP LEARNING. 

tigiioiis to, and surround the flower. By 
contiguous, you will understa^nd so near as to 
touch." Caroline having, in observance of 
her father's direction, placed the dictionary: 
on the table, had already sought the meaning 
of the word.^ Mrs. G. proceeded, " It is su- 
perior when j^laced above the germ, as in this 
Rose ; and inferior when placed below it, as 
in the Violet." 

Mrs. G. next directed Caroline's attention 
to the kind of calyx called a spathe (16), of 
which the Snowdrop is an example. She 
pointed to her the dry leaf on the stalk just 
below the flower, and asked if she did not re- 
collect the Narcissus she had seen in the gar- 
den a few days before, pjeeping out of the 
side of an oblong covering. Caroline said 
she did. Mrs. G. continued, "After the 
flower expands, it will be elevated above the 
covering, which is the calyx, and that will 
then appear in the same state as this spathe of 
the Snowdrop, like a dry leaf." 

Anne said she had alwavs admired that 


BOTANY. 55 

delicate flower, the Narcisslis ; it seemed like 
the emblem of innocence arrayed in purest 
white, and bending its head with genuine 
modesty. 

Mrs. G. said it was a favorite flower with 
her, and one with which, in her more youth- 
ful days, Mr. G. sometimes fancied to deco- 
rate her head. 

"Not that you required adornment," Mr. 
G. said, "for Nature had been sufliciently 
bountiful ; but to assimilate it to the unso- 
phisticated purity of your character." 

Mrs. G. smiled at his implied compliment, 
and resumed her instruction to Caroline by 
showing her the Alder {Jllnus)^ and Balm-of- 
Gilead (Populus), and requested her to notice 
those small scales which form an assemblage, 
bearing the flower. " These serve," she said, 
" as lateral calyxes, the term lateral signify- 
ing one side. They are arranged, as you 
perceive, along a rachis, which term Anne 
has explained to you in the subdivisions of 
the receptacle, and eacli encloses the stamens 


56 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

and pistil. This kind of calyx is called an 
anient (11). The involucre ^"^ (18), she conti- 
nued, '• is at a distance from the flower, and 
has the appearance of a green leaf. It differs 
from the spathe in never having enclosed the 
flower. It is generally at the origin of the 
peduncles, or stems — as you would say of 
umbels." 

''But," said Cai'oline, " I do not under- 
stand what is meant by umbels." 

"1 presume you do not," rejoined Mrs. 
G. ; " but I will explain it. You recollect 
the caraway seeds you are so fond of eating, 
that grew in the garden last summer ? " 

'' Oh, I recollect them, and your asking 
me to observe how much the stalks appeared 
like the spokes of a wheel, or the whalebones 
from the centre of an umbrella." 

'' That, my dear, is an umbel, but it may 
with more propriety be included under that 
part of botany called the inflorescence. The 
involucre, one of the subdivisions of the ca- 
lyx, you will recollect, is the green leaf, or 


BOTANY. 51 

calyx, at the origin of these umbels. The 
glume calyx (19) is the chaff or husks of 
grasses, which enclose the stamens and pis- 
tils^ The calyptre (20) is the name of the 
cap or head of mosses, some of wliich are 
now in flower ; but they are so small, and 
being of a brown color, you might not notice 
them. The volva (21) is the wrapper— the 
calyx of mushrooms, and plants of that de- 
scription, which are called fungi." 

" A funny name," said Caroline ; " if Em- 
ma were here she would pun upon it." 

'• You have now a sufficient lesson for your 
memory to retain," said Mrs. G., ''for the 
present. I wish you, when examining the 
flowers, to be correct in your designation of 
the various calyxes, that you may readily 
distinguish them from the variety of corols 
which will be the subject of our next lesson. 
You will find it of advantage to look over 
this preliminary treatise on the subject," 
handing her a small book, called a Botanical 
Catechism, " from which I formerly derived 


58 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

much information, and which has been high- 
ly recommended by professed botanists. , We 
will now lay aside the flowers, and prepare 
for rest." 


CHAPTER V 

Synshine and rain together meet, 
And fill the air with perfumes sweet 

In a few days the weather and walking 
were such as to admit of Mrs. G.'s again 
going out with her family. The earth ap- 
peared literally covered Avith buds ; but they 
could find only a few flowers that were not 
similar to those they had pFCviously gather- 
ed. Anne advised them to select some of the 
handsomest of those, that she might direct 
and assist in pressing them. This aff'orded 
them occupation and amusement for some 
time. Charles had procured a smooth board 


BOTANY. 59 

for th6m, on which they spread a sheet of 
paper and placed the flowers upon it, with 
the leaves, carefully smoothing them. Ano- 
ther sheet of papier was placed upon them, 
and another board, and on that a weight, 
both to press them smooth and keep them 
steady. The succeeding day they took them 
from'the papers, which had imbibed a mois- 
ture from the plants, and dried the papers, or 
usecl others for the purpose, and spread them 
as before. This process it was,pecessary for 
them to repeat several times, or the damp- 
ness woujd cause them to mould and adhere 
to the paper, in which case there was danger 
of breaking the petals. As they became suffi- 
ciently dry, Anne directed her pupils to lay 
them in sheets ot brown paper, and place 
them away safely, that when they understood 
the classes and orders, they might label them, 
with the direction of Mrs. G. or herself as to 
the names. This she told Caroline would be 
the only means of causing them to retain 
what knowledge they had acquired. A mere 


60 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

theory of the science, she said, would afford 
them but little pleasure ; it is the practical 
knowledge which renders this branch of 
science so interesting. 

One afternoon, towards the close of April, 
as the female part of the family Avere assem- 
bled, Caroline, after some time watching the 
rain which was descending in copious drops, 
turned to her mother and said, " I shoukl 
think these showers and sunshine together, 
would give a spring to the flowers that have 
been so long forcing themselves through their 
])uds ; will it be much longer, mother, before 
they open ? " 

"No, my dear," Mrs. G. replied, "these 
are most refreshing showers to quicken vege- 
tation ; and no doubt there will soon be a 
profusion. It is fortunate they were not far- 
ther advanced ; since the weather for some 
days past has been so blighting, that the deli- 
cate petals would have withered, had they 
not been shielded by nature's sure defence." 

" How much better it is, mother, than if 


BOTANY. bl 

my wish had been gratified. I was impa- 
ti^t to have them open a fortnight since. If 
they had they would now all be dead, and 
we should be obliged to wait a long time for 
them to bud and bloom again." 

" This conveys a good moral," said Mrs. 
G., " and We might derive many such from 
the wisdom and beauty displayed in the 
works of Nature, had we but an eye ready 
to see, and a heart disposed to apply the 
lesson." 

" What moral would you draw from this 
instance, mother ? " 

"A caution to my young friends," replied 
Mrs. G., " not to be too hasty in the display 
of their charms of mind, or person, which by 
exposing them to flattery might make them be- 
come vain, or regardless of forther improve- 
ment. The inference you may draw." 

" Yes, mother, it would make them disa- 
greeable, and that would be as much of a 
blight, I suppose, as the frost is to the flow- 
er." After a short silence she said, " I 
5* 


62 THE PASTIME OF LEAR-MNG. 

have been thinking how near to the ground 
all the early blossoms are, unless they grow 
upon trees or shrubs." 

" The wisdom of the Almighty," said Mrs. 
G., " is displayed in this, as in every other 
part of His works. Were they to grow 
higher, they would be more exposed and 
more easily injured, than when so near the^ 
ground, where they are almost covered with 
leaves that can better endure the sudden 
changes of the atmosphere, at this season, than 
the more tender flowers." 

Emma and Julia were watching at the win- 
dow for their father and Charles ; Caroline 
joined them, and stood gazing at the drops of 
rain, made brilliant by thp rays of the sun 
which was "just emerging from a cloifd." 
^' Anne," she said, " does not it bring to your 
thoughts-smiles and tears, to see sunshine and 
rain at the same time ? How beautiful all 
nature looks ! " 

" It is a glorious sight," Anne replied; 
'' such as must give joy to a heart even in 


DOMESTIC SKETCHES. 63 

grief. It presents many delightful images to 
the mind. I have often assimilated the sun, 
thus appearing through the clouds, and irra- 
diating the falling showers, to the benevo- 
lence of humanity, speaking peace to the af- 
flicted heart, and illuminating the face of 
sorrow^." 

" It may also be assimilated to virtue cheer- 
fully struggling through the clouds of adver- 
sity," said Mrs. G. 

Caroline said it reminded her of the beau- 
tiful hymn Emma had learned the last Sun- 
day, beginning w^ith 

■ " Mark the soft falling snow, 
And the diffusive rain ; " 

and asked her mother if she did not admire it. 
Mrs. G. replied she thought it beautiful; 
" as are all," she added, «' by Dr. Doddridge, 
who composed it." Caroline said she was 
particularly pleased with that part, 

" The harvest bows its golden ears, 
The copious seed of future years." 

5t 


64 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

Mrs. G. asked if the application did not also 
please her. 

Caroline said, '' That about the Gospel ? 
Oh yes, mother, — 

' Millions of souls shall feel its power, 
And bear it down to millions more.' ''' 

Mrs. G. rerriarked, that the reflections con- 
veyed by those lines must animate the hearts 
of all who have any conviction of the 
strength, consolation and support which the 
truths of the Gospel afford, and render them 
desirous to aid according to their ability in 
extending its influence. 


DOMESTIC SKETCHES. 65 


CHAPTER VI, 

There's not a flower that decks the mead, 
Nor blade of grass on which we tread, ^ 
Nor moss, nor rock, nor murmuring spring — 
But to my heart new pleasures bring — 
And lead me to adore His hand 
Who scatters blessings o'er the land. 

Time, with its regular pace, soon appi^acli- 
ed the month o]f May ; but Winter's chill air 
still lingered, as if unwilling to be supplanted 
by the gay coloring and balmy fragrance of 
its successor, — yet after a few faint struggles 
to resume its reign by alternately retreating 
and reappearing, it fled from the mild influ- 
ence of approaching Summer, with no very 
amicable feelings tbwards its genial and more 
fortunate sister, but with the resolution of 
collecting its forces to renew the combat at a 
more favorable season, and with blasts and 
blighting frosts to sweep away, in one pro- 
miscuous throng, all the rich beauties and 
variegated scenery which Spring, Summer and 
6 


66 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

Autumn, had produced and cherished with so 
much care. 

Caroline's heart bounded with joy. as the 
numerous flowers met her view in ever-in- 
creasing variety, filling the air with odor, as 
Anne and herself, Emma, and Charles (whom 
a holiday afternoon afforded an opportunity 
of uniting with them), strolled over the hills, 
by the side of the streams, and in the more 
shady groves. Their parents were at a dis- 
tance, witnessing and enjoying the happiness 
of their children, no less than the beautiful 
scenery by which they were surrounded. 
Anne remarked, " The earth seems to be car- 
peted by Nature with ^11 'the varied colors of 
the rainbow." 

Caroline said, " We have filled our baskets, 
but there seems to be no flowers among them, 
we have gathered so many leaves. You say, 
Anne, the leaves are very important to a 
botanist." 

'' They are so," rejoined Anne ; " it is by 
the leaves and stems that the different species 
of a flower are principally distinguished." 


BOTAN'Y. 67 

Anne mentioned the classes and orders, ge- 
nera and species, of a few of them. " When," 
said Caroline, " shall I know enough to re- 
member, as you do, and describe a flower 
botanically ? " 

Anne replied, " There is no doubt you will 
very soon have as much knowledge of the 
subject as I possess, which is very little com- 
pared with your mother's. But you will find 
there is little effort of memory requisite ; a 
practical botanist can distinguish the class and 
order of some flowers at a glance, though he 
may never have seen them before, — from the 
same principle, and as easily, as you can dis- 
tinguish a work-table from a bureau, or a 
chair from a sofa." 

" How pleased I sliould be to know as 
much," said Caroline. 

Charles advanced witii a Triloba, and in- 
quired if it was not an* exotic. Emma wished 
to know what an exotic meant. 

Charles told her it was a term applied to 
plants not indigenous to this country. 


68 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

Emma said she was sure she was more ig- 
norant now than she was before. 

He explained by saying, '' Exotics are 
those plants which do not grow in this cli- 
mate, until the seeds, roots, or other parts of 
them, are brought from another country or cli- 
mate. The green-house plants are of this 
number ; they are too tender for the open air 
and sudden changes of our climate. Indige- 
nous plants are those which are natural to this 
soil and climate, and grow spontaneously — 
that is, naturally — and without cultivation, 
in the fields or woods." 

Caroline said she thought th6 green-house 
plants beautiful, but she preferred those 
which grew naturally, as she could gather 
them when she pleased. She asked Anne if 
the Snap-dragon (Jlntirrhinum) ^ which she had 
seen growing near the street, was indigenous. 
Anne replied, that the species of Antirrhinum 
to which she alluded, (that was its botanical 
name,) was an exotic, but the climate suited its 
growth, and it was now naturalized, "as many 


BOTANY. 69 

other exotics are," she continued, " and live 
and flourish without cultivation in the fields, 
as well as gardens ; the seeds are dispersed by 
the air, and produce new plants without any 
other assistance than what Nature affords." 

Caroline said she wished Charles would 
attend to Botany with them. 

He replied he had rather Avork in his gar- 
den and cultivate flowers for her to botanize, 
and to please Emma and Julia with ; and to 
present to his mother or Anne the first Da- 
mask Rose of the season, — than to spend his 
time trifling with the stamens and pistils of a 
flower. Charles was in truth fond of a gar- 
den, and cultivated his Rose Avith so much 
attention, exposing the buds to the genial in- 
fluence of the sun, that his bush was generally 
coA^ered with the first blossoms of the season, 
and his grapes vied with his father's in flavor 
and size. 

" How can you call it trifling, Charles ? " 
said Caroline ; " if you can take pains to cul- 
tivate flowers, why not examine and under- 
stand them ? " 


70 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

"• Of what use would it be to me, except to 
serve as amusement ? " Charles asked ; " and 
I have other sources of amusement. I had 
rather be the horse to draw Julia's waggon. 
That is of some use, for it promotes her 
health ; and when I run so fast as to frighten 
her a little, it gives a spring to her blood." 

'' I love to see you frolicking with her and 
Emma," said Caroline, " and you well know 
I like to take a part myself ; but you can also 
join with us in our amusements, and Botany 
is now the principal one with us." 

"It is very well for girls to play with 
flowers ; but my amusements must include 
some useful object. It is with a view to ac- 
quire a knowledge of mechanics, as well as to 
please Emma and Julia, that I am making the 
little carriage and schooner for them." 

" You are very ingenious, Charles, but Bo- 
tany would be useful to you, also." 

" If you can convince me of that," said 
Charles, " I will commence the study imme- 
diately." 


, BOTANY. 71 

Mrs. G., approaching at the time, Caroline 
request^ her to explain to Charles the bene- 
fit to be derived from the study of Botany. 

Mrs. G. said he was probably in one of his 
quizzing moods, as he very well knew — hav- 
ing heard his father frequently remark — that 
it is of much use in the arts. In manufac- 
tures, in coloring, and in medicine, it is of 
vast importance. Charles replied he was sa- 
tisfied of that ; but he did not believe manu- 
facturers or physicians devoted their time 
to the examination of stamens and calyxes. 

" Though it is not probable they devote 
much time to it, they must possess a know- 
ledge of the elementary principles of this, as 
well as every other science, if they wish to 
become proficients in the study, or to derive 
any advantage from it," Mrs. G. remarked. 

Charles acknowledored it might be a neces- 
sary pursuit for some professions, or particu- 
lar line of business, but that the generality of 
people could reap no otlier benefit from it 
than pleasure. 


wV 


72 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

Mr. G. having returned, after examining 
his fruit trees, overheard Charles's Vemark, 
and interposed by saying he thought Botany 
a branch of science, the knowledge of which 
should be more extensively cultivated than it 
is. " Were this study," he continued, " in- 
troduced into our schools, and taught univer- 
sally, we should hear, far less frequently than 
we now do, of persons losing their lives by 
eating poison Hemlock, wild Parsley, and a 
variety of other plants, which grown persons, 
as well as children, ignorantly mistake for 
those of a beneficial nature, and which are 
not unfrequently administered in sickness as 
healthy medicinal herbs ; and were our youth 
of both sexes to explore mountains, w«ods, 
and streams, in their hours of relaxation from 
severer -studies, for trees, shrubs, and herbs, 
we should no doubt be amply supplied with 
ingredients of Avhich to compound all the 
variety of medicines that are requisite in this 
country, as a substitute for the vast quanti- 
ties which are now imported at an exorbitant 


BOTi-NY. 73 

expense. Our manufactories, also, instead of 
depending upon foreign countries for coloring 
materials, as is the case at present, with but 
few exceptions, would obtain a sufficient 
quantity from our own forest trees, lichens, 
and even the humble moss, and herb— which 
from the general ignorance of the subject of 
Botany (that I regret to say so extensively 
prevails among us, though we are called an 
enlightened people), are now passed by unno- 
ticed, and unsought." 

" Your argument has fully convinced me, 
father, of the utility of Botany ; and I will 
without delay commence the study of it," 
said Charles. " Come, Caroline, you must be 
my teacher in the first principles ; give me all 
the information you possess about the stamens 
and pistils, that I may proceed with you. 
Who knows but some hitherto unknown 
plants may meet my eye, and that my name 
may be handed down to future ages, as a 
second Franklin or Columbus, for my useful 
discoveries ! Adieu to building ships and car* 


74 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

riages for the present ; my mind soars higher 
and deeper than the mere surface of earth and 
water ! ! " 

" And adieu to building castles in the air, 
you had better add," said Anne, much atmused 
at his sanguine hopes. 

As they reached their happy home, the sun 
was just sinking with all its glory, and so 
irradiating the horizon with its beams, that 
the western sky, and the calm water in which 
it was reflected, appeared enveloped in glow- 
ing splendor, which brightened as the glorious 
luminary declined. 

" Who," said Mrs. G., " can view the 
splendid yet calm beauty of this scene — that 
is unrivaled by Art or Nature — and not reflect 
upon that ' Sun of Righteousness who came 
with healing in his wings,' to difi'use light 
and peace on earth, and immortal blessedness 
to all who trust in his name, follow his ex- 
ample, and, in loving hiin, love and dispense 
happiness to all around } " 

Julia, who had been impatiently watching 


BOTANY. 75 

the return of the party from their walk, 
(which was too long to admit of their taking 
her with them,) greeted them with her ca- 
resses, and exclamations at the many beautiful 
flowers their baskets contained — a large share 
of which she had been promised, and gladly 
received. Emma was so much fatigued that 
she willingly retired with her to rest at an 
early hour, after obtaining from Caroline an 
assurance that she would the next day teach 
her the lesson she was to receive that evening. 

The table was soon covered with a profu- 
sion of flowers, and their botanical exercise 
commenced. Mrs. G. explained to Charles 
the subdivisions of the calyx, which, with 
the assistance of the Catechism, he soon com- 
prehended. 

Mrs. G. then took a Rose, and a Periwinkle- 
as it is usually called, {Tinea,) and point- 
ed out the difference between a polypetalous (22) 
and a monopetalous corol (23). " The Rose,'* 
she said, "is of the former description, and 
has more than one petal. The narrow part 


76 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

of the petal, by which it is inserted upon the 
calyx, of receptacle, is termed the claio (24) ; 
and tlie broad spreading part, the border (25). 
This Vinca," she continued, " is an example 
of the manopetalous corol, having only one 
corol or petal, and consists also of two parts, 
— the tube (26), which is the cylindrical part, 
that you see is enclosed in the calyx ; and the 
limb (27), which is the horizontal spreading 
part of the same flower." 

Mrs. G. then exhibited to them the Water- 
leaf, or Burr-flower — called in Botany //?/- 
drophyllum — as an example of the bell-form co- 
rol (28). " You observe," she said, '^ it is 
swelling out at the base, and is without a 
tube." 

Charles said it was significantly named, it 
was shaped so much like a bell ; and inquired 
if the corol of the Lily of the valley was not 
al^o bell-form.. 

Mrs. G. replied that it was ; and when it 
blossomed, which would not be for some 
weeks, he could press one of those delicate 


BOTANY. 77 

flowers to keep, as an example of that corol. 
She then selected a flower that Caroline said 
looked like the Lily of the valley, only 
there were not «o many flowers on the stem. 
Mrs. G . remarked that it was of the same ge- 
nus, {Convallaria,) but of a different species. 
*•' It is usually called Solomon's seal. The 
form of the corol," she continued, '* you see 
is unlike that of the Lily of the valley. 
Charles, you are fond of seeking a resem- 
blance between two objects : What do you 
think this flower is like in form ? " 

Charles replied he thought it was like a 
funnel. 

Mrs. Gr. rejoined, " You are correct ; this 
corol is called funnel-form. — tubular at the 
base, with the border gradually expanding, 
in the form of a reversed cone." 

Charles remarked he was just going to add 
it had the appearance of a cone. 

'' The salvcr-form " (29), Mrs. G. resumed, 
'' is tubular for most of its length, with a flat 
spreading limb on the top, of which the 


78 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

Periwinkle ( Vinca) is a very good specimen ; 
also the Lilac, known to botanists by the 
name of Syringa. This," she said, taking 
from the table a delicate white flower, " is a 
icheel-form corol (30), consisting of a salver- 
form with an extremely short tube. It is an- 
other species of the genus ConvaUcma, of 
which the common name is Spiked Solomon 
seal, and is thought by some to be handsomer 
than the Lily of the valley ; but it has no 
fragrance." 

" Perhaps," said Charles, " ' its sweets are 
wasted on the desart air.' But I should have 
left that for Caroline's memory, she is so fond 
of treasuring in it scraps of poetry." 

" I am too much engaged about the corols 
to think of poetry now ; yet you have re- 
minded me of some lines composed by a cer- 
tain lady you know, which I stole from her 
to-day, and after much entreaty she consented 
to write them in my Album. To-morrow 
you shall see them ; but do, mother, proceed 
with our lesson. Charles*, is it not a delight- 
ful study ? " 


BOTANY. 79' 

" Yes," said Charles ; •'' though it can 
hardly be called a study, I think." 

Mrs. G. next proceeded to explain a labiate 
corol (31), saying, "It is one that is two- 
lipped, like the mouth of an animal. This," 
she said, showing them a Glechoma — or 
Ground ivy, as it is frequently named — " is 
called ringent {S2), one of the distinctions of 
a labiate corol. It has, as you see, the throat 
open or gaping. There is no example among 
these ilowers of the personate corol {^S)^ and 
I doubt .wliether there is any of that descrip- 
tion that blossoms as early as this month. 
But you may perhaps recollect the appear- 
ance of the Antirrhinum, or Snap-dragon, 
which is an example of that kind of labiate 
corol." 

Anne stepped out of the room, and soon 
returned with a dried specimen of tliat flow- 
er, in so good preservation that they could 
easily discern the distinction. " The person- 
ate corol, as you observe in this flower," she 
said, " has the lips closed or muffled. I have 


80 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

now explained to you all the distinctions of 
the monopetalous corol which it is .essential 
for you to know. As it is now too late to 
enter upon the distinctions of the polypeta- 
lous corol, we will reserve that subject for 
another evening." 


CHAPTER VII. 

** From purity of thought all pleasure springs, 
And from an humble spirit all our peace." 

When the family were again assembled, 
Charles reminded Caroline of her promise to 
show him Anne's poetry, supposing her to be 
the author of the lines to which she had al- 
luded the preceding evening. 

Caroline asked her mother if she had ever 
seen any of Anne's composition in that line. 

Mrs. G. replied that she had found a few 
lines in her room soon after the loss of her 


BOTANY. 8 1 

son Henry, which she conjectured to have 
been Anne's. She had been much gratified 
by the consolatory reflections they contained, 
and had treasured them with her choice re- 
membrances ; but as tlie subject was at that 
time painful to recur to, she had shown them 
only to Mr. G. 

Anne said she had no talent for poetry, but 
she sometimes felt inclined to express her 
ideas in rhyme, merely for her own amuse- 
ment. The lines to which Caroline alluded, 
and had requested for her Album, were eli- 
cited by her discovering that the Epigaea re- 
pens, to which they were addressed — the 
most fragrant of New-England plants — was 
one of the earliest blossoms in the Spring. 
But they were written without premedita- 
tion, and to any other than a very partial 
eye would not be thought worth transcribing. 

Mrs. G. however requested to hear them, 
and Caroline read the following 


6* 


82 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 


ADDRESS TO THE EPIGAEA REPENS. 

Sweet little modest flow'ret of the vale, 
Art thou too cast on this bleak world alone — 
Thy sweets to mingle with the passing gale, 
And in uncultured wilds to bloom, unknown ? 

Secluded from the world — like modest worth 
In Virtue's self secure, by pride untaught — 
Too nobly great thy charms to blazon forth, 
^s such thou art unfriended and unsought. 

Thus unprotected, soon, alas, will fade 
The roseate hue that tints" thy early bloom ; 
Rude insects will thy nect'rine sweets invade, 
Or blighting frosts may hasten on thy doom. 

Worthy, as Mountain Daisy, of the verse 
That Scottish Bard pour'd forth in such sweet strams,. 
Thy fate the Muse, less tuneful, would rehearse. 
Thy charms commemorate, and chant thy praise. 

Yet soon another Spring will from decay 
Thy nobler part revive, again to bloom ; 
Again in vernal garb thy form array, 
As Virtue still survives Death's wintry gloom, 

Charles said he wished his thoughts would 
flow as readily in verse, that he might ad- 
dress a few lines to Anne expressing his fa- 
vorable opinion of the flights of her muse. 

Mrs. G. remarked that the Address pes- 


BOTANY. 83 

sessed a merit which Anne never lost sight of 
in any of her productions — allusions to the 
advantages ever resulting from piety and virtue^ 
expressed or implied. 

Caroline was delighted to hear their com- 
mendations, and Emma requested leave to 
learn Anne's pretty poetry, that she might 
recite it to her father ; but as it was not very 
easy for her to read writing, Charles pro- 
mised to copy it for her in , printed letters. 
'<■ And now for Botany, mother," he said. 

Mrs. G. selected a Shepherd's purse, as it 
is usually called, {Thlaspi,) to exhibit and 
explain to them the cruciform corol (34) ; but 
the flower being so small, she requested Anne 
to gather a Wall flower from their house 
plant, then covered with golden blossoms 
" tinged with iron brown," and desired them 
to notice the four petals in the form of a 
cross. '' This," she said, " is the character- 
istic of this kind of corol, from which circum- 
stance it derives its name, which you will 
recollect is cruciform." 
6t 


84 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

She next explained the caryophylleotis corol 
(35), "which has five regular petals with 
long claws, enclosed in a tubercular calyx, of 
which the Pink (Dianthiis) is an example. 
But as I know not of any plant with that de-' 
scription of corol in blossom at present, we 
must have recourse to my herbarium," she 
said, handing them a dried specimen. 

Charles said he could understand the dis- 
tinctions as well from seeing the dried flow- 
ers, as those that Avere fresh » 

" How beautifully this Pink has retained 
its color, mother," said Caroline. 

Mrs. G. remarked, " Some flowers retain 
their color many years, others fade almost as 
soon as dried ; but to proceed. This Tulip," 
taking one from the bulb glass, that with 
others had been gathered to ornament the 
mantel-piece, " belongs to the corol distin- 
guished by liliaceous (36), also this Dog-tooth 
Violet. You observe the petals spreading 
gradually from the base, and exhibiting a 
bell-form appearance." 


BOTANY. 85 

" Yes, mother," said Charles, "I should 
have called it a bell-form corol." 

" But you must recollect," rejoined his mo- 
ther, '' that we are not now defining monope- 
talous, but polypetalous corols." 

'' I stand corrected," said Charles ; "I 
think, Anne, this is rather against my becom- 
ing a very great botanist, to mistake at the 
second lesson." 

" This need not discourage you, my son," 
said Mrs. G. ; " any person who had pro- 
gressed no farther than you have, would have 
been liable to the same mistake, their appear- 
ance being so similar. We are now," she 
continued, " to explain the rosaceous corol 
(37), which is formed of round spreading 
petals, with no claws or very short ones, as 
this Rose." 

" And this Apple blossom," said Charles, 
which he was examining, pleased to give evi- 
dence that he understood something about it, 
though he had so recently been in error. 

" Yes," said Mrs. G. ; " also the Strawberry 
7 


86 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

(Fragaria), Cherry (Prunus), and nearly all 
the fruit blossoms, are illustrations of the ro' 
saceoiis corol." 

The papilionaceous corol (38) now remains 
to be explained ; " and taking one of the flo- 
rets from a head of Clover ( Trifolium) , she 
requested them to notice the variety of Avhich 
that small part of the Clover flower consists, 
saying, " this constitutes a complete floret." 

'' I thought." said Caroline, " the whole 
head was only one flower." 

" It consists, as you see," resumed Mrs. G., 
" of numerous florets, each of which is as per- 
fect, and of the same description of corol, as 
the Sweet pea (Lathyriis)^ which is so much 
admired for its fragrance and delicate bloom, 
and sought after for ladies' bouquettes. It is 
irregular, and spreading ; and, from its re- 
semblance to a butterfly, is not unfrequently 
called the Butterfly flower." 

''Mother," interrupted Caroline, ''you 
know the butterfly pincushions which Anne 
made ; could not we form some to resemble 


BOTANY. 87 

the Pea, and send to the Ladies' Fair, for the 
Infant School ? " 

I should be pleased to see you exercise your 
ingenuity in that way ; and if you can suc- 
ceed; and finish them neatly, no doubt they 
will be acceptable, as they will have novelty 
to recommend them, — and you will have the 
satisfaction of reflecting, that by your industry 
and ingenuity you have contributed something 
in aid of an object so meritorious, and de- 
serving of encouragement, as is the Infant 
School/' 

Charles said he would send his schooner, 
which he had intended for Emma and Julia, 
and build them another. He then requested 
his mother to proceed with the explanation 
of the papilionaceous corol, which he thought 
wae a name just long enough for Caroline's 
taste. But Caroline was too much engaged 
to notice his speech. 

Mrs. G. resumed — "You perceive the 
large spreading petal, on the upper part of 
the flower ; this is the banner (39). The two 


88 THE PASTIME OP LEARNING. 

side petals are icings (40), and tlie lower pe* 
tal, of the form of the keel of a boat, is 
called the /ceeZ " (41). 

" How much it looks like the under part 
of Charles' schooner," said Caroline. 

Mrs. G. turned back the keel, and exposed 
to their view the curved stamens and pistils 
which it had enclosed. " Some flowers," 
she said, " are destitute of one or more of the 
petals, in which case it is termed incomplete^ — • 
the term which you recollect is also applied 
to those flowers which have no corol. This 
is a complete flower." 

Caroline said she should never have 
thought there were such a variety of beauties 
in a Clover blossom, or that the examination 
of it could be so interesting. Charles ex- 
pressed his surprise that there were so many 
concealed beauties in flowers that were un- 
known to him till he investigated them. 

Mr. G., who had entered a short time pre- 
vious, and had been a silent spectator of their 
pleasure, in allusion to Charles' last remark 


BOTANV. 89 

said — « Every step we advance, in the know- 
ledge of Natural Philosophy, excites wonder 
and admiration ; and regret in those who 
have in early life neglected the pursuit of it." 

Caroline inquired of her mother when she 
began to study Botany ; " you know." she 
said, " every flower you see." 

"And yet," replied Mrs. G., " thqre is 
much upon the subject of which I should feel 
my ignorance, were I to visit other countries, 
or distant parts of this country. It has al- 
ways been a delightful study with me since I 
first commenced it, which was but a year or 
two before my marriage, when 1 had an op- 
portunity of attending the lectures of an 
eminent botanist. Having acquired some 
previous knowledge from an elementary trea- 
tise, a book which had been the gift of Mr. 
G., I entered immediately into the pleasures 
of it ; and with his assistance, I made what 
was considered by my classmates rapid pro^ 
gress. Mr. G. was himself a pupil, though 
he had a good previous knowledge of the 


90 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

subject ; for he was something of an enthusi- 
ast in his love of flowers, and all the other 
beauties of Nature — and is so still." 

A tender glance from Mr. G.'s eloquent 
eye expressed, in language which she feelingly 
understood, how indelibly engraven upon his 
heart were those scenes to which she alluded. 
It was at that delightful period of his life, 
when he was first permitted to indulge those 
fond hopes of future happiness, which he had 
since so fully realized with but one or two 
melancholy exceptions. He replied — instead 
of affording Mrs. G. assistance, she imparted 
knowledge to him. Her instructer had told 
him she knew nothing of the labors of the 
science, for she had acquired information 
with so much ease, and made such a pleasure 
of the study, that in her, knowledge of the 
subject was like intuition. 

Mrs. G. said, " Mr. G. furnished me with 
flowers, of the best specimens of their kind ; 
and I was highly favored in being permitted to 
attend at the lecturer's room, with a few of our 


BOTANY. 91 

class, (there being only a few sufficiently in- 
terested to meet with us,) on the mornings 
of those days when he delivered the lecture, 
which Mr. G.'s other studies precluded him 
from doing. We then labelled the flowers ; 
putting the class and order, genus and spe- 
cies, on a strip of paper, that we attached to 
each specimen, and which — as mine became 
dry, after having been pressed — I arranged 
systematically, and afterwards examined them 
at leisure. The next season, as the flowers 
again appeared, 1 compared them with those, 
and the descriptions in botanical works, and 
soon became as familiar with the flowers in 
the fields as with those in my herbarium. 
. Mr. G. said that he had heard a botanist, of 
superior knowledge upon the subject, remark 
that there was not a lady in the United States 
wli^ understood botany as well as Mrs. G., 
nor in the world that he knew ; he had heard 
of two in Europe, but had never seen them. 

" Were you ever so fortunate as to meet 
with anything newj mother ? " asked Charles. 


92 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

" No, my dear, nothing but what our bo- 
tanists have seen and described ; but many of 
them were new to me, and it afforded me 
much pleasure to ascertain their genera and 
species, from the description given of them 
in those books I possessed upon the subject. 
I was'surprised last summer, when I instructed 
Anne, -to find how easily my memory recalled 
the knowledge I had acquired so many years 
since, having taken no pains to impress it up- 
on my memory." 

"It is generally the case," said Mr. G., 
" that what the understanding fully compre- 
hends, particularly upon a subject in which 
we are interested, we seldom lose the recol- 
lection of." 

Charles said, he thought he should be able 
to understand and recollect better the nature 
and effects of electricity, by seeing Dr. Frank- 
lin's experiments of the dancing horses and 
magic stars, than by committing twenty 
pages of a treatise upon the subject to me- 
mory. 


BOTANY. 


93 


Mr. G. remarked he was glad to discover 
that his son felt interested in subjects of that 
nature, and would show him some chemical 
experiments, during his vacation. 

Anne said, " Charles is never satisfied until 
he discovers how everything is constructed, 
and who invented it." 

'' I hope it is a laudable curiosity, is it not, 
Anne .'' " Charles asked. 

" Certainly," replied Anne, " and it appears 
to be extending itself rapidly to Botany." 

" Though I did once think it only a girVs 
study ; I know you add that in your thoughts." 

Anne acknowledged he read her correctly 
for once. 

Mrs. G. reminded them it was time to 
prepare for retiring to rest, if they wished to 
walk before breakfast the next day, as they 
had proposed, and inhale the balmy fragrance 
of the morning air. 


94 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 


CHAPTER VIII. 

'' From labor health, from health contentment springs ; 
Contentment opes the source of every joy." 

The following morning, on Mrs. G.'s de- 
scending to the breakfast room, she fomid the 
younger part of the family in readiness for 
their morning excursion ; but the sun was 
soon obscured by clouds, which gave omen 
of speedy rain, — and they were obliged, 
though not without some feelings of regret, 
to relinquish their anticipated pleasure. Car- 
oline lamented they should have no flowers 
for their evening exercise ; but Charles volun- 
teered his services, saying he had no objection 
to a shower bath, and sallied forth in pursuit 
of those which Mrs. G. had described as ne- 
cessary in explaining the inflorescence, which, 
together with the pericarp and seed, would 
be the subject of their next lesson. Those 
flowers were known to him by their common 
names. 


BOTANY. 95 

Caroline asked the explanation of inflo- 
rescence. 

Mrs. G. replied, "It is the manner in 
which flowers are situated upon plants." 

Caroline said she had no idea Botany in- 
cluded that part. 

Mrs. G. remarked, '' Every part of the 
plant, even the most minute, from the root 
to the serratures on the edge of a leaf, are 
comprised in the study of Botany." 

'' The farther I advance," said Caroline, 
" the more interesting I find it, and the more 
I wish to proceed. Come, Emma, we will 
look at our dried specimens this morn- 
ing," she continued, " that will amuse us 
both till the school hour." 

Charles soon returned with his hands full 
of flowers, some of which he had gathered 
from shrubs and trees, and from the last 
he had literally received a shower bath, the 
rain having commenced immediately upon 
his soinij out. Caroline and Emma were in 
raptures at the collection he had brought. 


96 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

and busied themselves in arranging them in 
glasses of water, that they might be kept 
fresh for the evening, and also to ornament 
the room — after gratifying Julia with as many 
of them as she could clasp in her little hands. 
After finishing their studies for the day, to 
which in justice it ought to be said they de- 
voted themselves with proper attention, from 
the laudable desire of acquiring knowledge, 
together with the amiable wish of obtaining 
the approbation of Anne and their parents, 
as well as from their anticipated enjoyment of 
pursuing their botanical pleasures, which they 
had only in one or two solitary instances for- 
feited. Caroline requested her mother to let 
her have the materials for the pea pincush- 
ion. Anne offered her services in cutting 
out the card and silk for the banner. Caro- 
line said she should like to have them all of 
different colors, as she had seen purple, and 
pink, and white, and scarlet peas ; but, after 
a moment's thought, she recollected the scb.v-' 
lei pea was a bean. 


BOTANY. 97 

Anne told her the banner would answer 
for the pincushion,^' made like the invisibles^ 
as they are called, — the pins to be introduced 
at the edge. 

" And the wings will serve for needles," 
said Caroline ; " those I must make of flan- 
nel, — of what color should they be, Anne ? " 

'' The wings of the Sweet pea are v/hite," 
Anne replied, " and of the Purple pea, pink ; 
those of the White pea and the Scarlet bean 
are of the color of the banner and keel." 

" The keel will be very difficult to form," 
said Caroline, beginning to repent having un- 
dertaken a business which she now thought 
would require much patience. But she re- 
collected, if she did not persevere, her 
amusement for that evening would be with- 
held ; and she also thought of the benevolent 
object which her mother so much approved, 
and summoned her resolution to surmount 
the difficulties which she was already con- 
vinced she should have to encounter. Her 
mother witnessed the varying feelings of 


98 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

irresolution, duty, and benevolence, in her 
ingenuous countenance, and the victory the 
latter feelings at length obtained, with ma- 
ternal pleasure. 

Anne said tlie keel would not be more dif- 
ficult to make than the strawberry emery 
bags ; she thought they could cut a circular 
piece of flannel, and double it together, and 
fill it with emery, — cutting at the same time 
a piece of cloth to illustrate her meaning. 

" That is just the shape of a turn-over ap- 
ple pie," said Emma ; "I made one for Ju- 
lia's doll the other day, just as large as that, 
and Lydia baked it for me ; it pleased Julia 
very much." She then asked her mother for 
a piece of silk to make a cloak for Julia's 
doll, and was soon absorbed with the em- 
ployment, — that being the only garment she 
had omitted in completing the doll's dress. 

Caroline had at last succeeded in making 
the banner and keel, and soon put a button- 
hole edge round the wings, which she said 
were so small they would not contain more 


BOTANY. 99 

than a few very small needles. " How am I 
to join the different parts ? " she asked Anne, 
" and what shall I have for the calyx ? " 

Anne directed her, and said she had better 
work the calyx with green sewing silk ; that 
would be neater, and would better conceal 
where they were fastened together, than to 
make a covering of silk. 

Caroline, after being very diligent, com- 
pleted one before Charles returned, and 
placed it among the flowers to surprise him. 
Wiien they were removed to the table, it was 
some time before he noticed it ; and when he 
did, it underwent so rough an examination 
that she expected to see it fall to pieces. 

'' I think you pay my papilionaceous flower 
a compliment, Charles," she said, " you exa- 
mine it so botanically ; but do spare it, and 
not seek any farther for the stamens and pis- 
tils, or I shall have all my tedious work to 
do over again." 

" I think it appears to be pretty firm," said 
Charles ; '' but what have you in the keel as a 


100 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

substitute for the stamens ? That looks too 
plump to be natural." 

" I know it ; but I could not make it more 
delicate and have it useful : it is an emery- 
bag, to polish needles with." She then stuck 
a needle through it, to show him how soon 
it would render it bright. 

Charles thought she had succeeded very 
well. Mr. G.'s approval of it was also ob- 
tained, and Caroline felt happy that she had 
persevered, saying, " If there had not been 
some difficulties to exercise my patience, I 
should not have felt half the pleasure from 
having made it, that I now do from the re- 
flection of having overcome them." 

" The recollection of it," said Mrs. G., 
*' will, I hope, stimulate you in future to per- 
severe with patience under discouragements. 
Ever bear in mind, to strengthen your reso- 
lution, that the first step towards obtaining a 
victory over contending feelings — from a 
sense of duty — is always the most difficult ; the 
next effort will be comparatively easy, and 
every succeeding one still less difficult." 


BOTANY. 101 

After remarking, " If a corol agrees with 
none of those I have described to you, it is 
denominated anomalous ^"^^ Mrs. G. said, " We 
will commence this lesson with explaining the 
subdivisions of the pericarp and seed. For 
specimens of some of them, we must resort to 
the herbarium. Others, you are sufficiently 
acquainted with, as fruit, not to require ex- 
amples." 

The siliquc (42) , of which this Wall flower 
[Cheiranthus) presents a good example, has a 
thin longitudinal partition, which is called 
dissepiment ; this divides the cells, containing 
the seeds, from each other." 

"■ I see, mother," said Charles ; " the seeds 
are attached to both edges of this partition 
alternately." 

" You are correct," replied Mrs. G. ; and 
continued — " This pod, containing seeds of 
the Sweet pea [Lathyrus)^ is a legume (43) ; it 
has no longitudinal partition, and the seeds 
are attached to one margin only." 

" Is this a legume, mother ^ " asked Caro- 
7* 


102 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

line, selecting a pericarp of the Senna (Cas- 
sia) . 

" That is distinguished by the term Zomen^," 
rejoined Mrs. G., "which applies to those 
papilionaceous flowers that are not perfect. 
You observe it has transverse partitions." 

Caroline, after having looked in her dic- 
tionary, said, " Transverse means crosswise." 

Mrs. G. proceeded — '' A capsule (44) is a 
dry pericarp, which generally opens by 
valves or pores, or falls off with the seed." 

" See the pores in this Poppy," said 
Charles ; " I can shake all the seeds out." 

"The drupe ^'' (45), continued Mrs. G., 
" consists of a fleshy or cartilaginous coat, 
which encloses a nut or stone ; and is berry- 
like, as in the Plum [Prunus) — or dry, as in 
the Walnut (Juglans) . Putamen designates the 
shell of the latter, and nucleus the kernel. 
The pome (46) is a pulpy pericarp without 
valves, in which the seeds are enclosed in a 
capsule, as the Apple (P^/^ws)." 

" Then that which is called the core of the 
Apple is the capsule," said Caroline. 


BOTANY. 103 

Mrs. (jr. assented, and resumed — " The 
berry, or bacca (47), is a pulpy pericarp, in 
which the seeds are enclosed without a cap- 
sule ; as the Currant (Ribes), Strawberry 
(Fragaria), Cucumber {Cuctmiis), Pumpkin 
(Cucxirbita) , and Orange [Citrus),'^'' 

" A Pumpkin termed Berry, mother ? " 
Charles asked. 

" All those," said Mrs. G., '' possessing the 
same character, have been confounded with 
the term Berry. But Mr. Nuttall thinks 
they may with propriety be distinguished 
from each other ; and suggests applying the 
term Theca to those seeds from which the 
outer coat falls off on ripening, as the Win- 
ter strawberry (Celastrus scandens) ; Citriim to 
the Lemon and Orange ; and Popo to the Me- 
lon and Cucumber." 

<' Mother, is that called a strobile (48), that 
we see on the Pine trees ? " asked Charles. 

" It is," replied Mrs. G., ^« and is an anient 
with woody scales. To proceed to the sub- 
divisions of the seed," she continued : <« I 
7t 


104 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

will explain the cotyledons (49). These are 
lobes of seeds, which generally become thick 
succulent leaves, after they spring from the 
ground." 

" I have seen them, mother, when the 
Beans first rose from the ground," said 
Charles. " Have all plants two cotyledons ? "' 

Mrs. G. replied, " Some have only one, 
particularly those with a glume calyx, as the 
Grasses. The heart of the seed, which pro- 
ceeds from the cotyledons — so conspicuous in 
Chesnuts (Castanea) — is called the corcle. The 
tegument is the skin or bark of seeds, which 
separate on boiling, as in Peas (Pistmi) and 
Beans (P/i«5eo/ws)." 

" What is the scar, mother, on this Bean? " 
asked Caroline. 

" It is called hilum, and is the thread which 
conveys the nutriment till the seed is ripe. 
We will now proceed with the various modes 
in whicii flowers are situated upon plants, 
which is termed inflorescence (50) . There is 
no specimen of the ivhorl among these flowers, 


BOTANY. 105 

but my herbarium will furnish us with a 
good example in the Hyssoj3 (Hyssopus), 
which Anne, with her usual forethought, has 
I see brought us. You observe the stems 
surround the flowers in rings, one above the 
other ; that distinguishes the whorl. In this 
bunch of the Ribes^ the botanical name for' 
Currants, you see an example of the raceme 
(51). The flowers have undivided pedicels^ 
arranged along a general peduncle (52). The 
latter term signifies the stem that bears the 
leaves and fruit ; the former is a partial pedun- 
cle, bearing only the flower and fruit." 

" Then I suppose," said Charles, " the 
stem of the Apple blossom (Pyrus) is a pedun- 
cle, as it bears both leaves and fruit." 

" You are very correct," rejoined Mrs. G. 
" The panicle (53) differs from the raceme in 
its having the pedicels along the main pedun- 
cle divided, as you perceive in this Fringe 
tree (Chionanthus) ^ and in this dried specimen 
of the Oats." 
8 


106 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING* 

'' It appears more loose and irregular than 
the Currant blossoms," Charles said. 

'« It does," continued Mrs. G. " Tliis Li- 
lac (Syringa) is an example of the ihyrse (54) ; 
it resembles the panicle in the pedicels being 
divided, but it is more compact, and of an 
ovate form." 

" This bunch of Lilacs," said Caroline, 
" seems to be divided, and subdivided. I 
think I shall always know a thyrse, if they 
all resemble this." 

" That is their general appearance," Mrs. 
G. said, and continued—" This dried speci- 
men of the Mullein (Verhascum) is a spike 
(55). You observe the florets are arranged 
along the general receptacle, loithout partial 
pedicels — like the Currants — or with very 
short ones." 

" It looks like a spike, mother," said 
Charles, " stiff and straight." 

" The umhel (56), Caroline," continued 
Mrs. G., "I explained to you partially when 
upon the subdivisions of the calyx. Do you 


BOTANY. 107 

recollect what calyx I mentioned to you as 
belonging to the umbel ? " 

" The involucre^ whicJi is like a leaf at a 
distance from the flower, and situated at the 
origin of the peduncles of umbels." 

" I am pleased that you recollect so readi- 
ly. An umbel consists of several flower stems, 
diverging from one place, of nearly equal 
length, bearing florets on their extremities. 
This Apple blossom [Pijrus malus) is an um- 
bel ; also the Caraway [Carum).'''' 

" With how much regularity," said 
Charles, "each stem diverges." 

Mrs. G. rejoined, " A view of the harmony 
and consistency, together with the variety, 
conspicuous in the minutest flower, even were 
Revelation wanting, would, I should think, 
convince the most sceptical of their fatal de- 
lusion. Jill J^ature 'proclaims there is a God ! 
May it be our ever present, and highest aim, 
to be numbered among His children." 

Charles took up a plant from the table that 
was only in bud. Mrs G. said that was the 


103 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

Cornus alba^ known by the common name of 
Dogwood, and added, " this is a specimen of 
the cyme (57). You see, as in the umbel, the 
flower stalks proceed from one centre, but 
they are variously and alternately subdivided. 
When the Snowball (Viburnum) is in blos- 
som, you will have a good example of this 
kind of inflorescence to press. This Pear 
blossom {Pyrus communis) is a corymb (58j. 
From its level top it has the appearance of an 
umbel ; but you may perceive it differs from 
it, in having the peduncles take their rise at 
various distances down the main stem. The 
Tansey ( Tanacetum) is also an example of the 
corymb. There is no example of the fasci- 
cle (59) here, except this Pine, to which the 
term may be applied, though it is a bunch of 
leaves. It resembles an umbel in being level- 
topped ; but its fruit stalks are subdivided, 
and irregular in their origin. When the 
Sweet William (Dianthus) is in blossom, you 
can press one, as an example of the fascicle. 
This Clover blossom, which in Botany is 


BOTANY. 109 

called Trifolium from its having three Icafets 
on each stem, is an example of the head (60). 
You see the flowers appear of a globose form, 
with no peduncles or very short ones. These 
flowers are distinguished also by the term ag- 
gregate^ from their having several flowers on 
the same receptacle, with their anthers sepa^ 
rate. I will merely add that compound flow- 
ers, also, consist of numerous florets on the 
same receptacle, which are sessile, each con- 
taining five stamens, uniformly united by 
their anthers. This latter character distin- 
guishes them from the aggregate." 

" Mother," said Caroline, " I have l)een 
told botanists have no regard for double 
flowers." 

" They are unfit for botanical exercises," 
Mrs. G. replied, '' since their natural number 
of stamens is diminished by their being 
transformed into petals. This change is ef- 
fected by cultivation, but it seldom occurs in 
monopetalous corols. We will now close. 
The lesson has been so long this evening, 


110 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

perhaps you will find it necessary to study it 
with the flowers described, which you can do 
at your leisure." 


CHAPTER IX. 

" Man can show thee naught so fair, 
^ As Nature's varied marvels are ; 

And if thy pure and artless breast 
Can feel their grandeur, thou art blest ! 
If to thine eye the simplest flower 
Portray His beauty, and His power." 

On the following morning, the Sun, rising 
above the horizon in majestic splendor, dif- 
fusing light and joy and animation to every 
created being, and even to the inanimate 
works of Nature, was hailed by Caroline with 
demonstrations of joy. The lowing herds, 
the bleating flocks, and the lively choristers 
chanting their lays, and all ascribing praise 
to their Maker, in language that those who 


BOTANY. 1 1 1 

have a iieart to feel can fully understand, 
greeted the young party at every step as they 
sallied forth, who with their hearts united in 
the universal melody of Nature, which elo- 
quently expresses — " The hand that made us 
is divine." 

Caroline said, " See, Anne, how every 
flower is turned towards the Sun." 

" Yes," replied Anne, " they all seem desi- 
rous of paying.homage to the rising lumina- 
ry, by presenting their opening beauties first 
to his view." 

Emma said, " How sweet the air is this 
morning ! I wish Julia Avas with us, for she 
seems as if she never could be satisfied with 
smelling flowers." 

" I almost regret we did not wake her," 
said Anne, " the morning is so clear, and 
fresh, and healthy ; another day she shall 
participate with us in the pleasure of inhaling 
the delightful air, that seems laden with the 
fragrance of the fruit blossoms." 

'' I think," said Caroline, <' May is the 
pleasantest month in the year." 


112 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

" I hope you will always cherish that dis- 
position which will lead you to think the 
present period the most agreeable," said Mrs. 
G.J who had followed, and now joined the 
juvenile group, " which is ever the result of 
a contented mind — that recurs not to past 
pleasures, with regret that they can never be 
restored ; nor looks to the future, with such 
eager anticipations as to diminish present 
happiness." 

" When shall we enter upon the classes ? " 
said Charles. 

" After giving you some information upon 
the stems this evening, our next lesson will 
introduce you to the classes. Some farther 
preliminary knowledge might be attended to, 
but I think it better to deviate a little from 
the regular system that is generally adopted, 
than longer to restrain Caroline's impatience, 
as I can afterwards explain those subjects." 

Caroline remarked, that when she first 
commenced the study, she thought it would 
be dry and tedious till they advanced as far 


BOTAx^Y. 113 

as the classes ; but she now found herself 
mistaken, and did not believe any part of the 
study could be more interesting than that to 
which they had already attenxled. 

Charles inquired of his mother what sub- 
jects she would defer. 

" Information upon the roots and herbage," 
she replied, " which is essential to a know- 
ledge of the species, but not of the classes and 
orders. The various forms, margins, and ter- 
minations of leaves, are also very important in 
distinguishing the different species of a plant." 

" Mother," said Caroline, " I do not un- 
derstand about the gequs and species of a 
flower ; does it allude to their names ? " 

" It constitutes their botanical names. I 
will endeavor to illustrate my meaning. 
When you are acquainted with the classes 
and orders, you will discover by characters — 
of which you are now ignorant, and which I 
cannot well explain to you at present without 
occupying too much time — that this Apple 
blossom and that Pear blossom are of the 


114 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

same class, order and genus, but of different 
species. The genus is Pyrus. The Pear is of 
the Communis species, which gives it the 
name of Pyims communis: This species of the 
Apple is Malus ; consequently the botanical 
name of it is Pyrus malus. There are other 
species, also, of the same genus ; but these 
are sufficient, I presume, to explain my 
meaning." \ 

'' Yes, mother, I understand it now," said 
Caroline. 

" Is the Cherry also of the same genus," 
asked Charles, " as the Apple and Pear ? " 

'' No," replied Mrs. G. ; ^' it is of a differ- 
ent genus and order. Its generic name is 
Prunus. But it is of the saine class. We 
will delay any farther explanations for the 
present, and return to the house, as Mr. (J. 
must be waiting for his breakfast." 

They returned, quite animated by their 
walk, and entertained their father with a 
glowing description of the beauties of the 
morning scenery, and the pleasure they had 


BOTANY. 115 

enjoyed, with no small degree of enthitsiasm. 
Little Julia also was in an ecstacy on her mo- 
ther's promising to take her with them the 
next pleasant morning they walked out. Un- 
expected company prevented Mrs. G.'s at- 
tending to their lesson until the following 
evening ; whicli she did not regret, as it gave 
them an opportunity of perfecting themselves 
in the one she had last given them, — upon 
which, on resuming their lesson tlie next 
evening, she questioned them, and was 
well satisfied with their prompt replies. 
Even Emma could define a headj and a ra- 
ceme, very accurately. Mrs. G. then recom- 
menced with the ccmlis or ticlge (61), saying, 
" Tills is the chief herbage-bearing stem of 
all phenogamous plants, except the Grasses. 
{Phenogamous applies to those flowers which 
have their. stamens and pistils sufficiently dis- 
cernible for classification.)" 

''What, mother, trees and vines?" said 
Charles. 

"Yes," replied Mrs. G., ''the trunk and 
branches of the Oak, and the Mullein stalk." 


116 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

" And the roots ? " asked Caroline. 

" No, my dear ; the herbage of a plant does 
not include the root^ or carpogenation^ — which 
latter term comprises the flower and fruit." 

" This is a culm " (62), she said, pointing 
to the stalk of the Oats ; "it is the stem of 
Grasses, Grain, and Sugar cane, and when 
dry is called straw." 

" Such as Susan Wyman braids into bon- 
nets," said Caroline. " Is that straw — 
which she told me is the stalk of some kind 
of grain — called a culm ? " 

" It is," said Mrs. G. ; " and this Dandelion 
(Leontodon) is an example of the scape (63). 
It springs naked from the earth, and bears 
the flower and fruit, but is destitute of 
leaves." 

''The Snow-drop (Qalanthus) is like it,", 
said Charles. 

" And the JVamssies," added Caroline. 

"You are correct, my children ; and you 
will now know a scape whenever you see it 
in other plants. The peduncle I have already 


BOTANY. 117 

explained to you as bearing the flower and 
fruit, and is not destitute of leaves." 

" Of which the Apple and Pear," Charles 
and Caroline both said, " are examples." 

'' The pefioZe," Mrs. G. continued, taking 
a leaf from the branch of the Apple blossoms, 
" is the footstalk of a leaf." 

" I have seen some leaves without the pe- 
tiole," said Charles. 

^' There are many," rejoined Mrs. G. 
" When the stamens are destitute of fila- 
ment, do you recollect the term applied to 
the anther ? " 

"It is sessile," they both replied ; and 
Charles added, " I suppose when the leaf has 
no footstalk it is a sessile leaf." 

" You understand perfectly. We will now 
review what you have learned, as it is neces- 
sary you should be thoroughly acquainted 
with it all before we proceed to the classes. 
Interesting as has been the study to you thus 
far, you will find it still heightened by the 
pleasure of ascertaining, by your own know- 


118 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

ledge, the class, order, genus and species of a 
plant, though you may never have seen the 
flower of it before, — which, with the aid of 
NuttalPs, Bigelow's or Eaton's Genera, you 
will have it in your power to do very soon, if 
you persevere with as much interest as you 
have done hitherto." 

" Will it enable us to distinguish the poi- 
sonous plants, mother," said Caroline, " if 
we have never before seen them .'* " 

" Yes," said Mrs. G. ; " and that is one of 
the many advantages to be derived from this 
study." 

" Then I shall not be afraid to let Emma 
and Julia gather the wild flowers when I am 
with them, — as I always have been,. though 
some of them were very handsome." 

" And I shall not get poisoned again, I 
Jiope," said Charles, " as I was last summer, 
gathering that- — what did you call it, mo- 
ther ? " 

"It is usually called Ivy wood, but its bo- 
tanical name is Rhus radicans,^^ said Mrs. G. 


BOTANY. 119 

'' I knew a young man in the country, wliose 
nerves or muscles were so injured by hand- 
ling this plant — through ignorance of its 
poisonous qualities — that he Was scarcely 
able, in consequence of the tremor upon his 
hands, to write his name for years after- 
wards." 

" I might have suffered in the same way," 
said Charles, " had not Anne discovered me 
as soon as she did, while I was trying to pull 
up the vines from curiosity to see how far 
they expended. As it was, the skin peeled off 
my hands, you recollect, mother." 

" I do," replied Mrs. G. ; " and for that 
reason I interdicted your gathering any of the 
wild plants that you were unacquainted with. 
In future — since you and Caroline are becom- 
ing botanists— I shall have no fears that any of 
my children will be injured in that way ; as 
you will avoid poisonous plants yourselves, 
and have it in your power also to deter 
others from handling them." 


120 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 


CHAPTER X. 

" Nature is a splendid show, 
Where an attentive mind may hear 
Music in all the winds that blow — 
And see a silent worshijjper 
In every flower, on every tree, 
In every vale, on every hill, — 
Perceive a voice of melody 
In wavering grass, or whispering rill." 

A SUCCESSION of delightful weather in June 
— a month which in our climate deserves to 
be poetized, no less than her elder sister, 
that Bards in the birthplace of our Pilgrim 
Fathers so delight to honor — induced Mr. 
and Mrs. G.'s friends who resided in the City, 
to improve it in visiting Oak Grove. This 
caused an occasional suspension, of a few 
days, in the Botanical Lessons. 

Many young companions of the juvenile 
members of the family were among their 
guests, to whom it was a relaxation long an- 
ticipated to inhale the salubrious air, and en- 
joy a view of the delightful scenery, which 


BOTANY. 


this romantic spot presented, — and to ramble 
unrestrained over the hills, through brake 
and bush, and clamber up the moss-covered 
rocks in pursuit of a resting place from the 
fatigue which they encountered in their 
attempts and oft-repeated failures to ascend 
those steep and craggy summits. These 
served rather as decoys to excite their emula- 
tion and agility, than as barriers to the juve- 
nile group ; who, not unlike children of a 
larger growth, often pursue objects apparent- 
ly the most unattainable with greater avidity 
than those less inaccessible and more imme- 
diately within their grasp. That they are 
seldom found to yield the anticipated plea- 
sure — except that which results to the pur- 
suer from having surmounted obstacles — is a 
truism that few, however young in philoso- 
phy, will be disposed to controvert. 

Ample opportunities were afforded Caro- 
line, in this interval of her favorite study, for 
collecting specimens to enrich her herbarium ; 
her keen eye, together with that of the watch* 
8* 


122 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

ful Emma, suffering no flower to expand un» 
noticed within the range of their walks. The 
interest they evinced in the gorgeous and 
more delicate blossoms, met with a corres- 
ponding sentiment from their young friends ; 
but when it extended to the humble, and, 
as their guests termed them, unsightly weeds, 
it called forth many lively remarks and hu- 
morous sallies from them, not always divest- 
ed of sarcasm at their taste for drying herbs, 
which they facetiously called a dry amuse- 
ment. 

But on Charles and Caroline explaining to 
them the minute parts of those flowers which 
they thought so insignificant, and pointing 
out their various hidden beauties, and the 
wonderful variety and yet consistency in their 
construction, contempt soon gave place to 
admiration ; and they begged permission of 
their parents to have Botany included in the 
number of their studies, — acknowledging, on 
their return home, that of all the amusements 
in which they had participated at Oak 


BOTANY, 123 

Grove, none afforded them more pleasure 
than Botany. 

Opportunities however were occasionally 
presented to Mrs. G. for pursuing her botanic- 
iil instruction, which her children failed not 
to improve during their hoars for recreation, 
having lost none of their interest in that pur- 
suit by joining in those other amusements 
which the various tastes of their guests pre- 
scribed, and in which they readily acqui- 
esced, — following in this respect the example 
of their parents, whose readiness to conform 
their own pleasures to the inclinations and 
even caprices of their visiters, afforded a 
practical comment on tlieir hospitality and 
politeness. 

They usually waited the return of Charles 
from school ; who had enlisted with his best 
energies in this, as in all his other pursuits, 
and which suffered no declension — in a perse- 
verance that would not have disgraced a 
Mitchell, a Nuttall, or an Eaton. 

The weather was at this season favorable 
St 


124 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

for their assembling on the lawn ; in tlie 
Summer-house in the garden ; or by the side 
of the brook, where circular benches had 
been constructed within a' duster of Willows 
that ever presented a cool and shady retreat. 
Those scenes were in keeping^r\o use the 
phraseology peculiar to artists — with the stu- 
dy they were pursuing, and facilitated it by 
enabling Mrs. Gr. to select at a glance those 
specimens most illustrative of the subject of 
her lessons. There they could inhale the 
balmy fragranceof the air, which wafted, in 
its course, freshness — and health — ^and anima- 
tion, to all around. None but those who 
have realized such enjoyments, can imagine 
the high degree of pleasure resulting from 
rural scenery — the gambols of childhood — 
and intellectual improvement, thus combined. 
Mrs. G. improved the intervals between 
the visits of her friends in imparting know- 
ledge upon the roots and herbage, deeming it 
better to defer entering upon the classes till 
they should be less liable to interruption. On 


BOTANY. 125 

the first of those intervals which aflforded her 
an opportunity to resume iheir lessons, Mrs. 
G. requested of Caroline (who said she had 
studied the roots and herbage in the Botanical 
Catechism) an explanation of them. 

Caroline complied, saying, " The herbage 
comprises all the parts of every plant except 
the root and carpogenation, whether herba- 
ceous or icoody. But, mother," she continued, 
" I do not understand what is meant by her- 
baceous.''^ 

'' It is the term," rejoined Mrs. G., " that is 
applied to those plants of which the stems are 
not woody, and which perish annually down 
to the roots." 

'' Then the Clover (Trifolium) is an herba- 
ceous plant, mother." 

" You are correct," said Mrs. G. ; and add- 
ed, " The herbage consists of the cuticle^ 
which is the thin, outside bark, and appears 
to have no life ; it is often transparent — as in 
this branch of the Currant bush, whicli I 
have selected as an example." 
9 


126 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

As Charles carefully peeled off the cuticle, 
he said its texture, he thought, was something 
like paper. 

Mrs. G. remarked, in reply, that on one 
species of the Birch [Betula] the cuticle near- 
ly resembled paper. " This green substance," 
she continued, " between the cuticle and 
bark, of a. parenchymous or juicy nature, is the 
cellular integument. In the Elder (Sambucus) 
it is very conspicuous after the cuticle is re- 
moved." 

'' What is the bark^ mother ? " Charles in- 
quired. 

" The fibrous part of the covering, within 
the cellular integument," Mrs. G. replied, 
" is the bark ; it is of a strong texture." 

" What is that we call the sap, of which 
sugar is made .'' " Caroline asked. 

Mrs. G. resumed, " That is the camb ; it 
abounds in the Spring of the year between 
the bark and the wood of trees, and is of a 
gelatinous or jelly-like substance. The loood is 
the most solid part of the trunks and roots 
of trees and shrubs." 


BOTANY. 127 

" The piV/i," Caroline gaid, " is that spongy- 
substance in the centre of stems and roots of 
most plants, is it not ? " 

Mrs. G. said she was correct. 

Charles remarked, that in the Elder {Sam- 
bucus) he had seen the pith very large. 

Caroline next defined the roots as the de- 
scending parts of vegetables, which consist of 
the body of the root, and the fibres. 

" What are the general distinctions of 
roots ? " asked Mrs. G. 

Caroline replied, " They are annual, living 
only one Summer, as the Barley (Hordeum) ; 
bi&nnial, living through one Winter, and pro- 
ducing the flower and fruit the ensuing Sum- 
mer, as the Wheat ( Triticum) ; and perennial, 
existing through many succeeding Summers." 

" How many kinds of roots are there, and 
what are their distinctions ? " inquired Mrs. G. 

Caroline said, in reply, " There are seven 
kinds : — branching (64), which is when the 
whole root is divided, as the Oak ( Quercus) ; 
fibrous (65), one that is composed of filiform 


128 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

parts, originating at the base of the stem, as 
most of the annual herbs ; creeping (66), which 
is a subterraneous stem that branches hori- 
zontally, as the Strawberry {Fragaria) and 
Mint (Mentha) ; spindle (67), thick at the top, 
and tapering downwards, as the Carrot (Daii- 
cus) ; bulbous (68), a fleshy spherical root, 
that is solid (69), like the Turnip (Brassica) ; 
coated (70), as the Onion [Jlllium)^ or scaly 
(71), as the Lily (Lilium) ; tuberous (72), that 
which is of a thick fleshy substance, but of 
no regular form, as the Potato [Solanum) ; 
and granulated (73), which consists of knobs 
in the form of grain strung together, as the 
Wood sorrel (O^aHs)." 

Mrs. G. commended her accuracy, and 
added — " An exhibition of the roots I pre- 
sume is unnecessary, since you recollect most 
of them as palateable food, — their appearance 
not being changed by culinary preparation." 

Emma, who had been an attentive listener, 
said, " Carpogenation means the fruit and 
flower ; I tried to spell it when we first-began 


BOTANY. 


129 


Botany, and have remembered the meaning 
of it ever since." 

Mr. G. said it pleased him to receive this 
proof of her attention, and to find that her 
memory was so retentive. 

She said she knew all the different parts of 
the flower, and at his request named them, 
pointing correctly to each part of the one 
which he gave her for the purpose. 

Julia then came running to them, almost 
breathless from chasing after butterflies, say- 
ing she could not catch one of those pretty- 
yellow ones that were flying about the flow- 
ers, and wished her dear father would try to 
secure one for her. 

Mr. G. asked if she could be willing to de- 
prive them of their liberty. 

She said she wanted one only for a little 
while, to look at its pretty wings and see if it 
had any feet ; then she would let it fly away 
again, and would not hurt it any more than 
if it was a bird. 

Mr. G., ever disposed to be indulgent to 


150 


THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 


the wishes of his children, promised to grati- 
fy his pet, as he called Julia ; but he soon dis- 
covered it to be no easy task to arrest the 
flight of the little fugitives : for no sooner did 
he approach the flowers on which they had 
alighted, than, apparently aware of his mo- 
tive, they instinctively eluded him, winging 
their escape ; and it was not until after seve- 
ral unsuccessful attempts that he could catch 
a solitary one. This he at length effected 
with the aid of his pocket handkerchief ; 
placing which on the seat, he carefully intro- 
duced into it, in an inverted position, a 
tumbler, for Avhich he had despatched Emma 
to the house, and thus secured the butterfly 
as a prisoner. A flower was placed under the 
edge of the glass, to admit the air, which is 
as essential, he said, to the respiration of the 
insect kingdom, as to human life, and without 
which even vegetables droop and wither. 

Charles said he recollected having read, 
that Franklin, among some of his discoveries, 
had ascertained that the breath of a person of 


ENTOMOLOGY. 131 > 

common size poisoned a gallon of air each 
minute. 

Mrs. G. said it was not to be doubted that 
the confined apartments of the poor, where 
many persons are crowded together without 
suitable ventilation, is one of the primary 
causes of so great a proportion of mortality 
among that class of people, particularly dur- 
ing the warm season ; and th^at it ought to be 
considered one of the first duties of the bene- 
volent to remedy this evil. 

Anne said she never entered an apartment 
that was not properly ventilated, where there 
were several persons together, without imme- 
diately perceiving a change in the atmos- 
phere, and a sensation like suffocation. 

Julia seemed in ecstacy at viewing the but- 
terfly so near. Emma rernar^ced it had four 
wings. Mr. G. sajd that if two of them 
were cut off it could fly. 

" Do not cut them off, father," said Julia, 
mistakinor his meaning. 

"By no means, my dear," he replied; 


132 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

'' nothing would induce me to injure one of 
the most harmless as well as most beautiful 
of the insect tribe." 

Caroline, on examining it with the micros- 
cope, said the wings looked as if they were 
covered with dust. 

Mr. G. told her they were transparent in 
substance ; but being covered with a variety 
of grains made them appear opaque. 

" That means thick, I suppose," said Caro- 
line. " Does not the dust come off when 
they fly ? '.' 

" The grains," replied her father, '' appear 
to be supported by footstalks, which attach 
them to the wings." 

" See," said Julia, " its curious little eyes." 

Mr. G. told them, " The outer coat of the 
eyes are said to possess tlie lustre and the va- 
rious colors of the rainbow. They have also 
the appearance, and possess the properties, of 
a multiplying glass, whicli has a great num- 
ber of sides." 

Caroline remarked she had looked through 


ENTOiMOLOGY. 133 

a multiplying glass, when she was at Mrs. Ne- 
ville's, at a flower, which seemed to her like 
a thousand ; and at her hand, which looked 
very droll. 

Mr. G. continued, " The eyes of most in- 
sects are alike in this particular ; they also 
diminish objects seen through them. A sol- 
dier, viewed through the eye of a fly, I have 
understood appears like an army of pigmies." 

" I can count four feet," said Julia. 

Mr. G. told her there were six, but two of 
them were usually concealed in the hair of 
the body. 

Emma said the hair apj>eared like velvet, 
and asked what those v/ere on its head that 
looked like horns. 

" They are called feelers," Mr. G. replied, 
^' and have a number of joints. Perhaps they 
are designed by the Divine Architect — who 
never, in all his works, constructs anything 
in vain, or without reason — as eyelashes, to 
defend the eye." 


134 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

'' Or like the helm to a ship," said Charles, 
" to guide them aright." 

Emma said she should never be tired of 
lookino' at its beauties through the Diicros- 
cope, but entreated it might no longer be de- 
tained a prisoner. J.ulia — though not without 
reluctance — consented to its being released ; 
and the instant the glass was raised, it soared 
in the air, as if rejoicing at the restoration of 
its freedom. 

Mr. G., disposed to improve every favora- 
ble opportunity to " point a moral," made 
some pertinent remarks upon the superintend- 
ing care of an ever-watchful Providence, who 
sustains even a butterfly, and 

" Guides through the boundless sky its certain flight," 

mercifully extending His protection over all 
the objects of creation, from the greatest to 
the least, and — solemn the thought — pene- 
trates the secret recesses of the heart. " May 
your thoughts, my dear children," he added, 
" which, as a Poet impressively says, ' are 


BOTiJJY. • 135 

heard in heaven,' be ever so well guarded as 
to bear the scrutiny of His all-seeing eye — 
and your hearts prove a suitable abiding- 
place for the gracious influences of His 
Spirit." 


CHAPTER XI. 

" First purify thy heart, then light thy mind 

With Wisdom's lamp, and thou pure bliss shalt find." 

'' In Virtue's path who treads, 


Treads surely." 

« 

When another opportunity offered for 
their assembling together without interrup- 
tion, Charles said he had studied the explana- 
tions of the leaves, and had collected speci- 
mens of a variety of forms, with a view of 
pressing them ; intending to attach a label to 
each leaf with the definition. He remarked, 


136 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

that in the Library of Entertaining Know- 
ledge, upon the subject of forest trees, the 
term leafet was used, which he did not fully 
comprehend, and requested his mother to ex- 
plain it. 

Mrs. G. said she would previously explain 
tlie distinction between simple and compound 
leaves. " The former," she continued, " are 
undivided, as that leaf of the Lily (Lilium),''^ 
pointing to one near, " and the Striped grass 
(Phalaris) ; the leaves of the Apple (Pyriis) 
and Peach (Amygdalus) trees are also exam- 
ples. A compound (74) leaf, consists of seve- 
ral leafets connected by one petiole, which 
latter term you recollect is applied to the 
footstalk of a leaf that unites it to the other 
part of the plant — as this Rose (Rosa)^ and 
the Locust tree (Robinia) yonder. Those 
compound leaves are distinguished by the 
term 'pinnate (75), having their leafets arrang- 
ed on opposite sides of a petiole. When the 
base of several leafets rests on the end of a 
petiole, it is termed digitate (76), or fingered. 


BOTANY. ISTf 

The False grape or Common creeper {Jlmpe" 
lopsis), which affords us so shady a bower, is 
an example of this leaf ; having five leafets, as 
you see, it constitutes a compound leaf, distin- 
guished by the term quinate (77). The Clover 
under your feet, having three leafets, is a com- 
pound leaf, called ternate (78). This," conti- 
nued Mrs. G., " forms the distinction between 
compound and simple leaves, and I hope ex- 
plains a leafet to your satisfaction." 

•' Yes, mother ; a simple leaf has one petiole 
to connect it to the other parts of a plant, 
and a compound leaf has but one, whether it 
consists of one leafet or a hundred." 

" You are correct," said Mrs. G. " Caro- 
line, I presume you also understand the 
term." She then requested Charles to name 
some of the other distinguishing characters of 
the leaves. 

Charles replied, " Those Sive evergreen, which 
are retained on the plant through the year, 
as the Pine (Pinus) ; and those are deciduous, 
which fall off at the close of the year. The 
leaves are also distinjruished bv their surfaces 


138 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

and positions, and by the variety of their 
forms, margins, and terminations." 

Mrs. G. desired him to define some of those 
leaves around them, with which he had ren- 
dered himself familiar. 

Charles gathered a Nasturtion ( Tropmolum). 
" The form of this leaf," he said, " is orbicular, 
or romid ; its position is peltate (19), which 
term is applied to a leaf that has the petiole 
inserted at or near the centre." 

He then gathered a leaf from the Trumpet 
honeysuckle (Lonicera), as an example of the 
connate (80) leaf ; saying, " they are opposite 
and united at their base, thus forming one 
leaf." 

Mrs. G. requested Caroline to define a 
sheathing (81) leaf. 

" It is one," Caroline replied, " that ex- 
tends down the main stem, and partly en- 
closes it ; like that Grass," pointing to the 
Striped grass (Phalaris) that was near. 

Can you produce an example of the obcor' 
date (82) leaf .? " asked Mrs. G.. 

Charles, after looking some time, observed 


BOTANY. 139 

the Wood sorrel {Oxalis) which he handed to 
his mother, describing it as of the form of a 
heart, with the narrowest end inserted upon 
the stem. " Cordate,''^ (83) he said, " is a 
heart-form leaf." 

" Mrs. G. requested an explanation of the 
reniform (84), or kidney-form leaf. 

Charles replied, " That is a broad leaf, with 
its base hollowed, and it has rounded ends 
and lobes, of which this Mallows (Malva) is 
an example." 

Mrs. G. pointed to a Pear tree (Pijrus), and 
requested a definition of that leaf. 

Caroline answered, " It is ovate (75), the 
base of which is rounded and broader than 
the extremity." 

Charles said, " A decurrent (86) leaf is one 
that extends down the stem, below the place of 
insertion, giving it the appearance of wings. 
I can find no example of it." 

Mrs. G. directed him to the Comfrey 
(Sympliitum) and remarked that a Physician 
had recommended it to her as a substitute for 


140 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

spice in cake, to which it gives an a^-eeable 
flavor. 

Caroline read the explanations of the leaves, 
which she regretted it had not been in her 
power to attend to previously more thorough- 
ly, and said she understood what lobe meant 
— the term Charles had just used in explaining 
a reniform leaf ; and defined a lobed leaf (87) 
as one that is deeply parted, with the mar- 
gins of the segments rounded. " If I w^as 
working muslin," she added, " I should say 
the edge has round scollops." 

" Not inaptly illustrated, my dear, for a 
female mind to understand it," interposed 
Mrs. G. ; " but to Charles, who knows no- 
thing about ' tracing flowers on the snowy 
lawn,' it would be less intelligible than the 
more popular explanation you have given." 
She then requested Charles to explain the dis- 
tinctions between a pinnate and pinnatifid (88) 
leaf. 

He gathered a leaf of the Locust {Robinia), 
and one of the Tansey ( Tanacetum). " This," 


BOTANY. 141 

he said, pointing to the first named, " with 
due deference to my mother's information, is 
a compound leaf ; the other is a simple leaf — 
divided into deep segments, but not extend- 
ing to the midrib. ^^ 

" The midrib," Caroline said, " is this 
central fibre, that extends from the stem, the 
whole length of the leaf, to its apex." 

'' Yes," Charles replied. " You perceive," 
he continued, pointing to the middle of the 
leaf, " this narrow edge, along the midrib ; 
at a distance you would not observe it, and 
might mistake this for a pinnate leaf." 

Mrs. G. was satisfied with his explana- 
tion, and asked him to define a lyrate (89), 
and a runcinate (90) leaf. 

" Both," Charles replied, " are pinnatifid 
leaves ; the former — of which this Raddish 
leaf (Raphanus) is an example — has the largest 
divisions at the apex, which is the terminal 
point, you know, Caroline, or end ; and it 
gradually diminishes towards the base, where 
it is inserted upon the stem. In the latter, as 
9* 


142 THE PASTIME OF LEARiNING. 

in this Dandelion (Leontodon), the segments 
are acute, (pointed, anT embroiderer would 
say, I suppose," he added, laughing,) " and 
pointing backwards." 

" Those are distinctions," said Caroline, 
" I should think no one would forget, after 
hearing them explained, and seeing the ex- 
amples." 

Charles said he had not proceeded to the 
margins and surfaces of the leaves, and wished 
his mother to explain them. 

Mrs. G. requested them to notice those 
sharp notches resembling the teeth of a saw, 
on the margin of a Rose leaf, pointing to the 
extremity. " Those," she said, " are distin- 
guished by the term serrate " (91). 

" The form of the Rose leaf is ovate, is it 
not ? " said Emma, who had attended to 
Charles' definition of that kind of leaf. 

Mrs. G. replied in the affirmative ; and 
continued — '•'■K crenate (92) leaf differs from 
a serrate in having its notches uniform, and, 
to use Caroline's term, rounded. There is 


BOTANY. 143 

another distinction, also, — they point neither 
to the base nor the apex — of which this 
Ground ivy (Glechoma) is a good example. 
A toothed leaf has projections from the mar- 
gin of its own substance, which are neither 
serratures, nor crenatures ; these are conspicu- 
ous in this Blue-bottle (Centaurea) .^'^ 

Caroline inquired Avhat the notch was call- 
ed, at the termination of the leaf of White 
clover ( Trifolium) which she was examining. 

Mrs. G. remarked to her that the notch 
was acute, which distinguished it as emarginate 
(93). " In a rctiise (94) leaf," she continued, 
" the notch or sinus (which term means hol- 
lowed out) is piore shallow and broader. An 
obtuse leaf has the apex more or less round- 
ed, as St. John's wort (Hypericum). - When a 
leaf terminates in any angle that is not round- 
ed, it is termed acute. A truncate (95) leaf 
has the terminal lobe apparently cut off. 
You recollect the Tulip tree {Liriodendron) at 
the corner of the lawn ; that is an example 
of the truncate leaf." 
9t 


144 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

Mrs. G. next proceeded to explain some 
of the distinctions of the surfaces of leaves, 
ghe gathered a young leaf of the Willow 
{Salix)y and requested them to examine with 
the microscope the soft, close-pressed hairs 
on its surface. '' These are distinguished," 
she said, '' by the term sericens or silky. The 
tomentose^ or doicny, you will see on the leaves 
of the Colt's foot {Tiissilago)^ which are 
downy beneath. This Borage {Borago) fur- 
nishes an example of the hispid^ or bristly sur- 
face, which you see has stiff hairs. Ciliate 
(96) applies to hairs or bristles on the edges 
of leaves, which resemble eye-lashes." 

" By what are the other fibres, besides the 
midrib, designated .'' " Charles inquired. 

Mrs. G. replied, '' Those leaves which are 
furnished with fibres, that extend in parallel 
lines from the base to the terminal point, are 
termed nerved^ as the Plantain (Plantago).''^ 

" See, mother " said Emma, " I can draw 
them from the leaf, as I do my thread when 
1 am gathering." 


BOTANY. 145 

^' They are quite strong," Mrs. G. remark- 
ed, and resumed — " Those leaves are desig- 
nated as veined\) which have their fibres va- 
riously branched, and subdivided,* as this leaf 
of the Apple [Pyrus). There are various 
other distinctions of leaves, of which you can 
obtain a knowledge with the assistance of 
your books, without my aid." 

'' What is this termed in Botany, mother, on 
the Grape vine, which we call climbers ? " 

*' It is called a cirrus^ or tendril^ and comes 
under the denomination of the /li/cntm, or ap- 
pendages to a plant, with the herbage of which 
they are often connected. Of these there are 
seven distinctions, and though not essential — 
as they are not universal to all plants — it is 
necessary they should be explained to you, 
since a knowledge of them is important in 
the specific distinctions. This is an example 
of the 5f?pt(/e," she proceeded, exhibiting a 
Five-finger, or Potentilla. " You obsei've it 
has a leafy appendage, at or near the base of 
the footstalk, (which term you recollect ap- 
10 


146 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

plies to the stem of the leaf,) that differs in 
some measure from the leaf.". 

" I can perceiv^e the difference," Charles 
remarked. . Caroline said the etipule would 
have escaped her notice, had it not been 
pointed out to her. 

Mrs. G. resumed, " A bract is the floral 
leaf, or appendage to a flower or its stalk ; 
it is of various forms, differing in that respect 
from the leaves ; it is often colored, as in this 
Mountain mint, Avhich is sometimes called 
Balm {Monarda). The spine is a thorn which 
proceeds from the wood." 

" Is the thorn on the Hawthorn a spine, 
mother .'' " Caroline asked. 

Mrs. G. replied in the affirmativ^e, and con- 
tinued — " The aculeus — which term is appli- 
ed to the jmckle — is a sharp process which 
arises from the bark only ; as the Rose (Rosa)^ 
and the Raspberry (Rubtis).''^ 

Charles inquired if those were prickles that 
occasioned him so painful a sensation a few 
days previous. 


BOTANY. 147 

Mrs. G. replied, ^' That to which you al- 
lude is called jnlus, or sting. It is a bristle or 
hair-like process from the leaves. Most spe- 
cies of the Nettle (Urtica) are covered wi 
it.'V 

Charles said he thouglit it was appropriate- 
ly named, and as he had felt the sting, he 
should not easily forget it. 

Mrs. G. remarked, that some species of the 
Nettle, it was thought, could be rendered 
useful as a substitute for flax, and that one 
species of it might be cultivated with advan- 
tage, to be applied to the same use as hemp. 
" The glandj^^ she continued, " is the only re- 
maining appendage to be explained. This is 
a minute tumor, often discernible on the ser- 
ratures of a leaf, and on various other parts 
of plants. In a species of the Thorn (Cratae- 
gus) the calyx is glandular, and one species 
of the Currant (Ribes) has almost every part 
of it covered with glandular hairs ; from 
which character it derives its specific name, 
being designated Ribes glandulosim. The 


148 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

leaves,^' Mrs. G. continued, *' afford a most 
copious and interesting study for the bota- 
nist, and are a curious branch of vegetable 
physiology. They imbibe and give out 
moisture, and are essential to the health of 
the plant. In calm, warm weather, drops of 
clear water appear upon those which grow in 
thick shady groves, as if there had been a 
shower of rain. On the leaves of Oranges 
[Citrus) the water is said to be sweet ; on the 
Lime tree, glutinous. The exudation from 
the leaves of some trees is known to be of an 
inflammable nature. Wax, it is asserted, can 
be gathered from the leaves of the Rosemary 
[Ros^marinus) .^^ 

" 1 recollect," said Anne, " having seen the 
Sago plant in a green-house. The leaves 
are pectinate (97) , very thick and long. The 
Sago (Cycus) that we use for food, is said to be 
the exudation from those leaves, which ap- 
pears in the form of globular grains. Loudon, 
however, in his Encyclopaedia of Plants, re- 
marks, that in China and Japan, where it is 


BOTANY. 140 

a native, the pith is used for food in times of 
scarcity, and also the roots of it, by the inha- 
bitants of those countries, after it has been 
beaten in a trough. In that state it is also 
strained, and the transparent part granulated 
by some process, when it is ready for expor^ 
tation." 

'' It must be a curiosity," said Caroline ; 
*' but, Anne, I do not understand what is im- 
plied by a pectinate leaf." 

'' It is a pinnatifid leaf, with very narrow 
parallel divisions resembling the teeth of a 
comb," returned Anne. 

"The aquatic plants," resumed Mrs. G., 
*' imbibe and give out a greater quantity of 
water, than has been observed in land plants. 
The leaf of the Side-saddle plant {Sarracenia)^ 
of which your father brought home a speci- 
men a few days since, the form of which surr 
prised you so much, is so constructed as to 
exclude rain ; yet the tubular part is half fill- 
ed with water. This is supposed to be the 
jgiBcretions of the petiole, at the base of each 


150 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

leaf, which is inflated, like a bladder, and 
forms large cups, a little contracted at the 
top, — the leaves serving as brims, which have 
reversed prickles within." 

*' I recollect it," said Charles, " and fa- 
ther's saying they were like wires to a mouse 
trap ; the flies could enter in without being 
injured by the prickles, — but once there, they 
could not escape. The cup was filled with 
dead flies." 

Caroline remarked, she had heard it was 
prejudicial to health to have plants in an 
apartment where people reside. 

Mrs. G. rejoined, " They are considered a 
great purifier in the light, where they give 
out pure air ; — by decomposing what was for- 
merly called fixed air (which is an union of 
oxygen and carbon), they absorb the carbon, 
as nourishment, and emit the oxygen. In the 
dark, they absorb the oxygen and give out 
carbon ; but as the proportion is smaller 
than what they absorb and exhale in the 
day-time, unless there are a large number of 


BOTANY. 151 

them they are not then deemed detrimental 
to health." 

" How strange," said Charles ; " one would 
think plants had the power of respiration." 

" Late philosophers . have ascertained," 
Mrs. G. remarked, " that the office which 
leaves perform for the support of vegetable 
life, is similar to that of the lungs for the 
sustenance of animal life ; most of them being 
provided with pores on one or both -of their 
surfaces, which are easily seen with a glass. 
Througli these a communication appears to 
be kept up between the air and the juices of 
the leaf. Plants are thought to possess also 
vegetable irritability. On touching the in- 
side of a stamen of the Barberry [Berberis) 
near its base, with a hair or straw, it instant- 
ly strikes its anther against the pistil, and 
shoots out its pollen." 

'' Who would have supposed," said Caro- 
line, " that those leaves v^^hich meet our eye 
in every direction, and yet escape our parti- 
cular notice, could afford so interesting a sub- 
ject for study." 


152 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

Mr. G. approached, leading Emma and 
Julia ; and having heard Caroline's remark, 
said — " The more we investigate the vast va- 
riety presented to us by ' Nature's works so 
lovely,' the more numerous will be our 
sources of happiness — the more expanded our 
ideas — the clearer our perceptions — and the 
greater the satisfaction we shall derive from 
obtaining even such incipient knowledge as 
our finite minds are capable of receiving in 
this state of existence, and our limited oppor- 
tunities will permit. Those philosophers who 
have been most remarkable for their scientific 
discoveries, and have devoted their lives to 
the investigation of the wonders of Nature, 
have acknowledged, at the close, that their 
discoveries had been but as a speck in the 
horizon, — that they have only prepared the 
way for acquisitions of future inquirers, who in 
their turn will perceive the inability of the hu- 
man mind to comprehend the majesty of 
Nature, in the growth of a blade of grass. 
But this convictioa," he continued, " should 


BOTANY. 153 

not discourage us in our researches ; since 
every accession of knowledge increases the 
sources of our happiness, if we apply it as we 
ought, and will tend to elevate our hearts to 
Him, whose power extends through all time 
and space, — 

" Who rules the seraph and the worm 1 

By whom no cre.iture is forgot 

Of those who know, or know him not." 

From this Immortal Being, at whose throne 
we are daily permitted to supplicate blessings, 
issue the Spring of all our knowledge — the 
Fountain of our best affections — and the 
Source of immortal happiness. May we 
make it our constant endeavor to improve 
those talents bestowed upon us, whether they 
be many or few, with the view of obtaining 
that highest of all rewards — the approbation of 
our God ! " 


154 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 


CriAPTER XII. 

Our griefs are soothed — our blessings doubly dear— 
When the soft voice of friendship meets our ear. 
Religion's ray — to kindred minds when given — 
Brightens each other's hopes that rest on heaven. 

Most of their visiters having at this time 
directed their course to the Springs, Niagara, 
and other places of Summer resort for the 
fashionable and opulent, no less than the 
valetudinarian, Mrs. G. again resumed the 
regular method she had found it expedient to 
adopt in the distribution of their time, both 
with respect to her children's application to 
study, and their hours for amusement. 

One guest only remained, the intimate 
friend of Anne, between whom a reciprocity 
of tastes, feelings, and sentiments, had been 
gradually developed by their frequent inter- 
course and their increasing knowledge of each 
other's character and disposition. 

They seemed to have been originally formed 


DOMESTIC SKETCHES. 155 

in the same mould, were iequally pure, disin- 
terested, and gentle. But the early efforts 
which liad been used to counteract any ill 
effects that might have resulted to Anne, from 
a too great indulgence of her more flexible 
and extremely delicate traits of character, was 
a contingency, in maturing that of Isabella 
Beaumont, with which slie was not favored. 

She had arrived at the age of seventeen, 
better fitted for a more exalted and purer state 
of existence than this sublunary world pre- 
sents, where she not unfrequently had to 
encounter the frowns of the unamiable, 
the sarcasms of the unfeeling, or the ridicule 
of those who could neitlier understand nor 
justly appreciate the high-toned feelings of her 
•noble but too sensitive heart. 

She could weep in secret over unmerited 
injuries, or ill-timed and undeserved reproofs, 
which, to retaliate or complain of, would have 
been doing violence to her feelings. 

Every attention which paternal love could 
dictate, she received from lier father. But 


156 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING, 

during that early period of life, when the 
greatest discrimination is requisite to discover 
the propensities, together with judgment 
to invigorate the feeble or check the redun- 
dant as they, develope themselves in propor- 
tions injurious to the future well-being of the 
mental or physical powers, the keen percep- 
tion of a mother's eye was wanting. 

It is maternal love alone that can chasten 
or strengthen, as circumstances require, with- 
out too greatly forcing or restraining nature ; 
and that can enter the sanctuary of the feel^ 
ings — the hidden recesses — of such a charac- 
ter as that of Isabella, who was affectionate 
and confiding, tender, unobtrusive, and timid 
in the extreme. 

They who are blest with a mother's love 
ought, by every act of kindness and duty 
which filial aflfection can devise, to cherish 
her existence as the most precious of gifts. 
Other losses may be repaired ; but this, never. 

She had early imbibed, from both her pa- 
rents, a love of the duties and spirit of reli-^ 


DOMESTIC SKETCHES. 157 

gion. This, connected with the recollection 
of the death of her mother, impressed Isabel- 
la's heart with sanctity of feeling for her 
memory, and reverence and fdial obedience 
towards her surviving parent ; and mingled 
with it a sentiment rather bordering on that 
intercourse which is supposed to exist between 
angelic beings, than is often experienced by 
the inhabitants of this " dim speck which 
men call earth." 

Mr. Beaumont had been so fortunate in the 
first partner of his choice, and had conse- 
quently formed so exalted an opinion of the 
female sex, that he had indulged no fear of 
being less successful in a second matrimonial 
connection. 

The present Mrs. Beaumont was a woman 
of showy, but superficial, accomplishments ; 
and too late Mr. B. was undeceived in the opin- 
ion he had formed of her character. She was 
capricious, selfish, and arbitrary ; which, in 
addition to an ill-regulated mind, rendered 
her totally unfit to cherish in his daughter 


158 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

the growth of her expanding virtues, — to 
counteract with gentleness and encourage- 
ment her too great timidity and self-distrust, 
or to supplant them with a suitable degree 
of self-possession, independence, and confi- 
dence in herself. These qualities, so far from 
being incompatible with feminine delicacy, 
are indispensably necessary in forming the 
character of woman for any situation in which 
she may be placed. 

Isabella was prepared to welcome her mo- 
ther's arrival with the reception of a daugh- 
ter, and to love her as such. But Mrs. Beau- 
mont's repulsive manner on the occasion 
chilled, like an icicle, the fountain of her 
warm affections. 

Mr. Beaumont had long been intimately 
acquainted with Mr. G.'s family, with w^hose 
domestic circle he had enjoyed many happy 
hours. He placed Isabella at the same school 
with Anne, with whom there was frequently 
an interchange of visits. This perpetuated 
and matured into friendship an acquaintance 
commenced in childhood. 


DOMESTIC SKETCHES. l59 

During Isabella's visits at Oak Grove, the 
clouds ever disappeared from her mirror-like 
face — which ingenuously reflected all that 
was passing within — as rapidly as the dews of 
night recede before the beams of the rising 
sun, leaving not a shadow of sadness on her 
countenance, which naturally beamed with 
joy and happiness ; and no one would then 
have supposed that it ever bore a trace of 
sorrow. 

She was at this period on her final visit as 
Miss Beaumont^ her nuptials with Mr. Egre- 
mont being soon to take place. This gentle- 
man had long been a privileged visiter at Mr. 
Beaumont's. He had been attracted by the 
sweetness of Isabella's disposition, on his first 
acquaintance ; and his penetration was not 
long in discovering — through the veil of her 
retiring manners — the ample resources of her 
mind. To his partial eye even her timidity 
possessed a charm. She had good taste in 
music ; and when only one or two friends 
were with the family, she was capable of per- 


160 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

forming with much skill. But in the pre- 
sence of a larger number, so great was her 
embarrassment, and her fear of incurring her 
mother's rebuke or reproving look, that she 
would frequently have failed in her execu- 
tion, had not a word or a glance from Mr* 
Egremont sufficed to reassure her. Thus 
encouraged, his presence was like a shield to 
inspire her with confidence, and she soon be- 
gan to expect, and even depend upon it, as 
necessary to her acquitting herself in a satis- 
factory manner ; and without understanding 
the nature of her sentiments towards him, 
she soon discovered it was essential to her 
happiness. 

By Anne — who was like a father confessor 
to her, the repository of her domestic inquie- 
tudes, her joys, and the more tacitly divulged 
secrets of the heart — the approaching event 
was hailed as the harbinger of future felicity 
to her friend. To Mr. Egremont she could 
freely entrust her happiness, — secure in the 
belief that he was every way calculated to 


DOMESTIC SKETCHES. 161 

cherish, guide and sustain this sensitive being. 
On his return from Europe, where he was at 
present engaged in some commercial business, 
he anticipated claiming her as his bride. 

Peihaps in no situation and at no period 
of life do the ciiarms of nature and everytliing 
that surrounds us appear decked in so gay 
and vivid a hue, as to a youthful pair who 
are approaching the consummation of their 
hopes, when their happiness is to be cemented 
by Hymen's bands in one indissoluble union. 

Isabella was happy to join Anne in the du- 
ties of^ the school room — to accompany the 
family in their walks — and to unite with them 
in their botanical investigatioijs ; but we do 
not pretend to assert that tlie Rose and some 
other flowers did not at times withdraw her 
thoughts from the subject of the lecture, and 
associate those sentiments in her mind — of 
which they are regarded by poets as emblems 
— with anticipations and reminiscences of a 
pleasurable nature. Either from this cause, 
or from interest iu the study, she always wel- 
10* 


162 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING, 

corned the approach of the hour for their 
lessons, thus fraught with pleasure, and made 
some progress in a knowledge of the subject. 


CHAPTER XIII. 

If hard those names you deem it to pronounce, 
By a more simple term the class announce. 

Mrs. G. had advised her pupils to commit 
to memory th^ Greek numerals, that they 
might recollect with more ease the names of 
the classes. Charles was familiar with them, 
having some time previously commenced the 
study of the Greek language. But he remon- 
strated against burdening their memories with 
the technical terms of the classes, — saying he 
thought it much better to designate them by 
the simple appellation of first, second, &c. 
than to attempt to pronounce those barbarous 


BOTANY. 163 

names, which it jars one's teeth to attempt to 
utter, and that makes one appear so very pe- 
dantic. He added, his former prejudices 
against the study had originated in his having 
heard a lady, with a most self-important 
manner, describe the Night-blooming Ce- 
reus (Cactus) in botanical language, which he 
was sure few persons present could have un- 
derstood. 

Mr. G. inquired if he recollected to what 
means the great Grecian orator resorted with 
a view of correcting the impediment in his 
pronunciation. 

Charles replied, ^' It is to Demosthenes you 
allude. Had the age in which he iiourished 
been enlightened with the knowledge of Bo- 
tany, uttering such rude jargon I think miist 
have effected his purpose, and remedied tlie 
defect, without the aid of stones with which 
he is said to have filled his month on going 
to the seashore to practise rlietoric. 

Mr. G. rejoined, That would serve as an 
argument in favor of the usefulness of acquir- 

lot 


164 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

ing those terms ; they might be of advantage 
to youth in promoting a distinct articulation, 
— " which, you will allow," he added, " is 
of no minor importance in elocution." 

Mrs. G. said the objections he offered to it, 
as being pedantic, would apply better to a 
smatterer than to one well acquainted with 
the subject ; and that it was probably the 
self-importance manifested by the lady to 
whom he had alluded — which would have 
been no less disagreeable to him had she been 
conversing on any other subject — rather than 
the terms she used, that prejudiced him. 

Mr. G. rejoined, '' No science can be 
thoroughly understood without a knowledge 
of its vocabulary. The more familiar we 
render ourselves with the terms applicable to 
it, the more extensive our knowledge, and the 
better qualified we shall be, you will not de- 
ny, to express ourselves intelligibly, perspi- 
cuously, and with precision, — not only upon 
that, but upon other subjects." 

Charles said, if the same terms were appro- 


BOTANY. 165 

priate to other subjects, he should be recon- 
ciled to them. 

" Many of them," resumed Mr. G., '' may 
be applied to more common subjects with 
propriety. But were not this the case, it is 
important that there should^ be one general 
nomenclature, which may be understood by 
persons of different nations and languages. 
This will enable them to converse with each 
other upon any science with which they are 
acquainted, though ignorant of each other's 
language. Speak to a German or an Italian 
of the plant called Snap-dragon ; by this 
name, neither of them would conceive that 
you meant Antirrhinum ; say it belonged to 
the fourteenth class, second order — this would 
afford them no better information. And 
though you may not have occasion to con- 
verse with a foreigner upon the subject, with 
those of your own country a familiarity with 
the technical terms will better facilitate con- 
versation, to your mutual satisfaction." 

" Oh, father," said Charles, '' how your 
11 


166 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

arguments always convince me. No doubt 
I should have been the mere smatterer I 
would avoid, had not my judgment been 
thus fully convinced, and my prejudices re- 
moved." 

Mr. G. said Ije would not oblige Caroline 
to learn the names of the classes, unless she 
preferred it. But to Charles, who wished to 
become a ^rs^ra/e botanist, it was indispensable. 

Caroline said she had learned the Greek 
numerals, and hoped to acquire as thorough 
a knowledge of Botany as her mother and 
Anne. 

Mrs. G. commenced the lesson by saying, 
" All plants are distinguished by being either 
phenogamous or cryptogamous. The first have 
their stamens and pistils sufficiently apparent 
for classification. In the latter, they are so 
obscure as not to be used as classic characters. 
The Linngean system of classification is called 
artificial, though many of the classes may be 
distinguished by their natural characters. 
This is the most popular system brought into 


BOTANY. 167 

use, and the only one by which we can find 
out a plant that we are unacquainted with." 

" How are we to discover the medical vir- 
tues of a plant, mother ^ " asked Charles. 

*' After we have discovered by this system 
— which is founded upon the seven elementa- 
ry organs — the class, order, genus, and spe- 
cies, to which a plant belongs, we examine 
its natural resemblance to other plants ; and 
by its affinities with them, ascertain under 
what natural order of Linnagus, or Jussieu, 
to arrange itj by consulting which, we can 
easily determine its medical qualities. In the 
Linnaean system there are twenty-four class- 
es ; but subsequent improvements in the ar- 
rangement have induced many of the more 
modern botanists to abolish two of them, — 
those called Polyadelphia and Polygamia. 
This is an innovation which President Smith, 
Eaton, Persoon, and others, approve. Nut- 
tall carries the innovation still farther, and 
proposes to abolish also the class Dodecan- 
DRiA. We will follow the present universally 


J 68 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

adopted method, and include all plants iri 
twenty-two classes ; of which twenty-one are 
distinguished by the number, situation, or 
proportion of their stamens. The first eleven 
are characterized solely by the mimher of 
their stamens." 

'^^ Are there flowers with only one stamen^ 
mother } " asked Caroline. 

" Yes, several. The Elite (Blitum) has but 
one ; of which the calyx is red and looks like 
fruit. I recollect your noticing a long branch 
of it which a lady brought here last summer." 

** I remember it," said Caroline ; " the 
whole length of the stem was covered with 
berries, as I thought, and I wanted to eat 
them." 

*' Most of the plants," continued Mrs. G., 
" of that class, grow in salt marshes. The 
Samphire (Salicornia) is one, which is used for 
making soda, and I have seen very good 
pickles made of it." 

'* What is the name of that class ^ " Charles 
inquired. 


BOTANY. 169 

*' The FIRST class, and is technically term- 
ed MoNANDRiA (98). Can yoa tell me, Caro- 
line, the name of the Greek numeral for one, 
from which its name is derived ^ " 

Caroline replied, '-'■ Monosy 

" Now I understand," said Charles ; '' the 
number of the stamens gives the number of 
each class. If there are two stamens, it is the 
second class. What name is given it from 
the Greek numeral Dis ? " 

" DiANDRiA " (99), Mrs. G. replied ; *' of 
which the Sago and Lilac are examples. 
Plants of this class may be known also by 
their leaves, which are undivided. Trian- 
DRiA (100), from Trds, is the name of the 
third class, which has three stamens. The 
Flower-de-luce (Iris) is of that class. To ex- 
ercise your memory, Caroline, I must look 
to you for the Greek numerals, as I give the 
number of each class. Repeat the fourth nu- 
meral." 

" TettareSj^^ Caroline replied. 

•^^ Tetrandria. " (101), Mrs. G. continued, 


170 THE PASTIME OF LEARNIxXG. 

" is the name derived from it for the fourth 
class, which has four stamens. The Button 
bush (Cephalanthus) belongs to that class." 

" I shall recollect that," said Caroline, 
" from Francis Berrian's allusion to the white 
balls of the Button bush, in reflecting upon 
his loved native home, when he was so many 
hundred miles distant. Pente is for five, the 
fifth class, I suppose." 

" Yes, my dear, from having five stamens ; 
it has the name of Pentandria (102). This is 
a very extensive class ; there are more flowers- 
containing five stamens than any other num- 
ber. You can see the stamens very distinctly 
in this Honeysuckle [Lonicera).'*^ 

'^^ And this Potato { ^olaimm)^'^'' said 
Charles. 

Emma wanted to have Caroline tell her all 
about the fifth class ; which she did, without, 
however, calling it by its technical name 
to her. 

Mrs. G. continued, " The sixth class has 
six stamens, and is called Hexandria (103)> 
from jEar, which is pronounced Hex." 


BOTANY. 171 

" This Lily (Lilium) is an example," said 
Charles. 

" How distinct the stamens are," added 
Caroline. 

Emma said she should know the sixth class 
from the beautiful Lily. 

Mrs. G. interruiDted them by saying, '• The 
Horse chesnut {Mschylus) is an example of 
the seventh class, which has seven stamens. 
It is called Heptandria (104), from Epa 
(pronounced Heptfi). This is an exotic. 
There is a plant of this class, called Chick 
winter-green (Trientalis) , and another one in- 
digenous to Canada, which are all that I have 
heard of as belonging to this class. This 
Nasturtion (Tropceolum) has eight stamens." 

''Yes," said Charles, "and belongs to the 
eighth class. As," he continued, " there 
must be an andria^ it seems, I presume it is 
called OcTANDRiA (105), from Odo, tlie 
Greek numeral for eight." 

*' A very correct inference, my son. By 
what term," continued Mrs. G., " would you 
designate the ninth class } " 


172 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

" Enneandria (106), from Ennea ; it has 
nine stamens, no doubt." After lookincr some 
time to examine the flowers his mother had 
collected for them, he selected the Rhubarb 
(Rheum) as an illustration of this class. 

Mrs. G. informed them, that plant and 
the Sassafras (Laurus) were the only ones she 
knew, of that small class. 

Caroline and Emma busied themselves in 
seeking for a flower that had ten stamens, as 
an example of the tenth class. The former 
inquired if it was called Decandria (107) ; 
Deka was the Greek numeral, she said, for ten. 

Mrs. G. replied in the affirmative. Caro- 
line presented a Cockle [A^rosiemma).^ and 
Emma a Pink (Dianthus), as examples. 

"The eleventh class," Mrs. G. said, "is 
distinguished by its having from twelve to 
nineteen stamens, which are not united by 
their filaments. As there is but one genus in 
the United States known to produce invaria- 
bly twelve stamens — the Asarum, which has 
characters that place it in another class — and 


BOTANY. 173 

as it is presumed that no flower has eleven 
stamens, Mr. Nattall very judiciously sug- 
gests the propriety of arranging the flowers 
in this cUiss (of which the number is very 
small) with others to which they bear some 
near affinity, as it respects their natural or 
artificial characters. This class derives its 
name, Dodecandria (108), {vom Dodeka, the 
Greek numeral for twelve." 

" How is it to be distinguished from the 
twelfth class, mother ? " asked Chiles. 

'' Only the first eleven classes have the 
general distinguishing characteristic of the 
number of tlieir stamens," replied Mrs. G. 
^' The twelfth and thirteenth classes are 
known by the insertion of their stamens. The 
first of these has twenty or more inserted up- 
on the calyx. This is an important charac- 
ter, and indicates that the various fruits pro- 
duced by such flowers, are almost always 
harmless, and generally nutritious. Most of 
the fruits that gratify our palate are produced 
by flowers of this class. The kernels of the 


174 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

pomes and drupes of this class, however, 
are said to possess the fatal prussic acid, that 
proves so deadly a poison, by their contain- 
ing the bitter almond flavor. It takes the name 
of IcosANDRiA (109), from Eikosi, the Greek 
numeral for twenty. After detaching the pe- 
tals from this Rose," she said, suiting the ac- 
tion to the word, " and on dividing the calyx 
with a knife, or separating it with your fin- 
gers, you will observe the stamens are con- 
nected witk it ; you see they encircle the cen- 
tral part of the flower, like a ring." 

Charles and Caroline both said they 
thought they could easily distinguish the 
flowers of that class. 

Anne said, No doubt Caroline, on discover- 
ing the Hawthorn (Crataegus) belonged to 
that class, would recollect it without further 
examination, from her favorite bard's allu- 
sion — to 

*' The milk-white Thorn, that scents the evening gale." 

Caroline remarked, that the flowers they 


BOTANY. 175 

were examining had recalled to her memory 
many of hei* scraps^ as Charles called them. 

Charles said, " The thirteenth class, you 
remarked, mother, is also distinguished by 
the insertion of its stamens." 

" Yes," continued Mrs. G. ; " but it differs 
in nature and character from the twelfth, 
having always twenty or more stamens insert- 
ed upon the receptacle^ — and from several of 
the genera in tJiis class affording a milky flu- 
id, embittered by the presence of opium." 

This remark induced Charles to examine 
the Poppy (Papaver). He said, " There are 
more than twenty stamens here, and they are 
inserted upon the receptacle. Of course tliis 
belongs to the thirteenth class." 

" To be sure it does," said Caroline, " for 
the Poppy has no calyx." 

Mrs. G. pointed to the calyx of one that was 
half blown — saying, " It has a two-leaved ca- 
lyx, which falls off before the corol is fully 
expanded, and is called caducous.''^ 

Caroline inquired the name of the class. 


176 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

Her mother replied, ^' It is termed Poly- 
ANDRiA (110), from Polus^ the Greek name 
far many. The red sap of the Blood root," 
she continued, " which is called Sanguisorba, 
acquires its bitterness from the presence of 
opium. Dr. Bigelow, in his Medical Botany, 
recommends this root as highly efficacious in 
the hooping cough and influenza. Tiie Ce- 
landine [Chelidonium) also has a yellow 
juice which possesses the same nature, and 
has been found efficacious in removing those 
excrescences from the skin, called warts." 
She continued, " Do you recollect the other 
general character by which I mentioned the 
classes are distinguished ? " 

Caroline replied, *' By the proportion of 
the stamens." 

Mrs. G. remarked, " The fourteenth and 
fifteenth classes have this distinction. The 
former has four stamens, two of which are 
uniformly the longest." 

^' That character distinguishes it from the 


BOTi-NT. 177 

fourth class, does it not, mother ? " Charles 
inquired. 

" It does ; and the flowers generally have 
labiate corols, which you defined when ex- 
plaining the suhdivisions of the corol ; of 
which this Thyme is an example. The class 
is called Didynamia (HI), from the Greek 
term expressive of two, overtopping the 
others. You observe," she said, after having 
detached the corol from the flower, " their 
diflerence of height." 

Charles examined a Foxglove (Digitalis), 
and said that belonged to the same class. 

Mrs. G. assented, and proceeded with the 
fifteenth class. '' This has six stamens, four 
of which are uniformly the longest ; and the 
flowers always have cruciform corols. You 
recollect having defined this corol." 

" Yes, mother," said Caroline ; " the Wall- 
flower {Cheiranthus) has a cruciform corol, — 
*the yellow Wall-flower, tinged with iron 
brown,' as Cowper describes it." 

"This class," continued Mrs. G., "takes 


178 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

the name of Tetradynamia (112), from the 
Greek, for four overtopping the other two. 
You may observe it in this Mustard (Sinapis).^'* 

" The sixteenth and seventeenth classes 
have their filaments united — apparently in- 
terwoven — the anthers remaining separate ; 
in the former, they are united in one set, 
from which the class derives the appellation 
of MoNADELPHiA (113), from the Greek term 
for one brotherhood. Do you pluck the co- 
rol and calyx from that Hollyhock [Jllth(za) ; 
then sever with your penknife the stamens 
from the germ ; now slit it. You see you 
can spread it like a mat, the filaments are so 
compact." 

" Yes, mother, and the anthers are all se- 
parate," said Charles. 

Mrs. G. continued, " The Malvas of Eu- 
rope, which are called Mallows ; the Hibiscus 
of the United States, often called Althaea ; 
the magnificent trees of the tropical regions 
of the Pacific ; the immense trees in India and 
South America, belonging to the genus Bam- 


BOTANY. 179 

bax, so remarkable for producing splendid 
florets, and long silky cotton ; also the fa- 
mous Daroo trees in Africa, some of which 
are said to have measured seventy-five feet in 
circumference, under the shade of which the 
nations hold their councils ; all belong to this 
class." 

'' How wonderful its size ! " said Charles. 
" The Daroo tree must be venerable from 
age." 

Anne said, Mr. Nuttall, in one of his lec- 
tures, mentioned, that from •known data, it 
was supposed to be not less than eight or nine 
hundred years of age. 

Charles remarked, " It should be termed 
the Methuselali of the forest." 

'' In the DiADELPHiA class " (114), resumed 
Mrs. G., " the n^ime for the seventeenth — 
which is derived from two brotherhoods — 
the stamens are united in two sets, though 
sometimes apparently in one, from their co- 
hering at the base. A valuable gum is said 
to be obtained from a species of this class ; 


180 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

and liquorice from Glycirrhiza — and other 
plants, from which indigo is also produced. 
Its flowers are papilionaceous, with which 
corol you are familiar, Caroline, from the 
pincushion you made to resemble it." 

" Mother, Sarah Natick made several like 
the one I gave her. She told me the ladies 
who bought them for the fair were quite 
pleased with them, and paid her handsomely." 

" It pleases me to hear it, my dear ; both 
on her account, and as it affords encourage- 
ment to you to -omit no opportunity that of- 
fers for the exercise of your ingenuity, and 
the improvement of your time, — seeking 
those amusements for relaxation, from a more 
regular application to your books and work, 
which will in some way prove beneficial to 
yourself and others." 

Mrs. G. continued, ^' I wished to explain 
the classes in one unbroken chain, as we had 
all the afternoon ; but I have amplified more 
than I intended. I will hasten to conclude, 
as I fear this lesson has already been so long 
as to weary you." 


BOTANY. 181 

«' Oh no, mother," both Charles and Caro- 
line uttered. Isabella said she was very much 
interested. Anne was engaged in making a 
cap for their neighbor,'Mrs. Ides ; and Emma 
and Julia were frolicking at a distance with 
their father, ever and anon advancing to the 
group to look at the flowers, and relate some 
incident, or what '' father said " which they 
thou«^ht divertin^j. 

Mrs. G. proceeded, " The eighteenth class 
has five stamens, united by their anthers 
in one set, or tube, with the flowers com- 
pound, as the Asters and Daisy (^e//is)." 

" The Mountain daisy, mother, that Burns 
sings of so sweetly ? " said Caroline. 

" The same. The class is called Syngene- 
siA (115), from the Greek term for growing 
up together. The nineteenth class is called 
Gynandria (116), from stamens and pistils 
united. The stamens are inserted upon some 
part of the pistil, and separate from the base 
of the corol and calyx ; as the Asarum, to 
which I have alluded, and Ladies' slipper 
11* 


182 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

[Cypnpedium) . In the twentieth class, called 
MoNCECiA (117), expressive of dwelling in 
one house, the flowers are not perfect, the 
stamens being in separate flowers on the same 
plant. The twenty-first is called Dicecia 
(118), as expressive of dwelling in two houses, 
the stamens and pistils of which are in sepa- 
rate flowers, on different plants. Of the latter 
the Hop (Humulus) is an example. The 
flowers on the two vines have a different ap- 
pearance from each otlier. Neither have a 
corol. In the staminate flowers, the calyx is 
five-leaved ; in the pistillate, it is only one- 
leafed. The Pine (Pinus) is an example of 
the former. When you have an opportunity 
to examine it, you will perceive the distinc- 
tion in those flowers. The twenty-second 
class is called Cryptogamia (119) ; and 
though included in the artificial system, is 
distinguished exclusively by its natural affi- 
nities.'* 


DOMESTIC SKETCHES. 183 


CHAPTER XIV. 


What hopes are worthy an immortal mind 

But those which point beyond the silent tomb ? 

And where can suiiering worth a refuge find, 

But in religion's balm — that cheers the darkest gloom 


On their return from Mrs. Ides', whither 
Isabella and Caroline had accompanied Anne 
on a charitable mission, they expressed much 
sympathy for the poor lady's sufferings. Isa- 
bella's heart was deeply touched with the pa- 
tience and resignation she manifested in her 
helpless, solitary state. 

Mrs. G. remarked, that she had been a most 
useful character till her illness, two years 
since, when she lost the use of her limbs on 
one side by a paralytic affection. But she 
liad sustained this event with the same chris- 
tian fortitude, and even cheerfulness, that 
marked her character under the various other 
afflictions with wliich she had been exercised. 
The lung fever had bereft Iier of an affection- 

lit 


184 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

ate husband, and an only child — a promising 
youth about eight years of age — within a few 
days of each other ; and though one of ten 
children, she was now literally alone in the 
world, being the sole survivor. " She has 
told me," Mrs. G. continued, " she consider- 
ed it a privilege that she had been permitted 
to watch over her parents, and most of her 
brothers and sisters, in their last illness — pray 
witli them in the final conflict — close their 
eyes in the long sleep of death — and pay tJie 
last tribute of respect to the frail tenement 
that had enshrined their emancipated spirit, 
which once inspired the heart with its affec- 
tions, the mind with its capacities, and had 
diffused life and vigor to their now tenantless 
abodes." 

" Is she very destitute ?" Isabella asked. 

Mrs. G. replied, '' She once possessed a 
handsome competence ; but her husband, pre- 
vious to his last illness, had not arranged his 
affairs with a view to the fatal and sudden 
termination of his illness. On the settlement 


BOTANY. 185 

of his estate, a plausible but mercenary law- 
yer scrupled not to appropriate a large por- 
tion of the property to his own use, upon tiie 
plea of some unsettled claims which he had 
upon her husband, but which her friends had 
no doubt were fraudulently asserted. Yet 
she has never been heard to murmur. It is 
probable, with the aid of able advocates, she 
might have reclaimed it ; but the fear that 
there were not sufficient proofs, and the un- 
certainty of what might be the issue, dis- 
suaded her from incurring the expense of a 
lawsuit. With the little she retained, she 
purchased a life annuity. This enabled her 
to pay her board in a small family ; and I 
consider myself fortunate in having her in 
the neighborhood. While her health con- 
tinued, she was comfortably supported ; but 
neither her finances, nor the family with 
whom she is, (tliough they are very kind to 
her,) can procure the comforts requisite in 
her present invalid state. But this affords 
her friends an opportunity of exercising their 
12 


186 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING, 

benevolent feelings, in requiting her kind- 
ness : for it may truly be said of her, she 
was willing ' to spend and be spent in doing 
good ' to others ; ever ready to nurse them in 
sickness, and willing to part with her last 
mite to relieve their necessities — from the 
principle of religion, the desire to obey the 
precepts, and imitate the example of our Sa- 
viour, no less than from a disposition replete 
with tender and benevolent feelings." 

Isabella said, " She appeared very cheerful, 
and to enjoy conversation ; was much pleased 
with the cap Anne had made, and with INIrs. 
Hemans' Poems you loaned her ; and had 
something to say about each of the family, in 
whom she expressed much interest." 

" It is characteristic of her," said Mrs. G. 
" She was ever disposed to bestow more 
thought upon others, than upon herself. 
Their sufferings, when able, she was always 
ready to alleviate, and to rejoice in their 
happiness." 

Caroline asked her mother if she thought^ 


BOTANY. 187 

Mrs. Ides felt any pain in those limbs that 
were paralyzed. 

Mrs. G. replied, " She speaks of an inde- 
scribable feeling, that is uncomfortable ; but 
she expresses much gratitude that she is not 
exercised with acute pain." 

Isabella said, the calm manner with which 
she alluded to Iier approaching dissolution 
was truly impressive ; that she said she was 
sensible she ought not to be impatient for 
her departure, as that might yet be distant, 
and she was assured that God's time in all 
things is best. She hoped she should not be 
thought ungrateful for the many kind atten- 
tions she was continually receiving from Mrs. 
G.'s family, and other benevolent friends, but 
she longed to meet her husband, and son, 
and other kindred, whom she trusted 

Were now at peace on Jesus' shore, 
Their anchor safe — their perils o'er ; 

and most of all, she wished to dwell forever 
with her Saviour and her God ! 


188 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

Anne said, that on her remarking to her 
she must derive much satisfaction from re- 
flecting on her past usefulness, Mrs. Ides re- 
plied, she had done no more than was her du- 
ty ; that her hopes of immortal happiness 
were founded solely upon the mercy of her 
God, through the merits of redeeming love ; 
that she had hoped to be useful, while life 
was continued, but now she felt herself a bur- 
den upon society — and like the barren fig- 
tree, " a mere cumberer of the ground.'^ 
And on her suggesting that her usefulness was 
by no means extinguished, her conversation 
always affording instruction — from the infor- 
mation her w^ell-stored mind contained, as 
well as from the virtuous principles it was 
ever her aim to inculcate — and most of all by 
the example her life presented ; Mrs. Ides re- 
plied, that she was often consoled by the re- 
flection, that even under her present priva- 
tions she might be useful — in the same sense 
as Wordsworth's '' Bethlehem Beggar " — hy^ 

exercising the sympathy and benevolence of 
others. 


BOTANY. 189 

Caroline said, " She appears, mother, very 
aged ; and yet she speaks of her short life, as 
if it had been but a few days, or months." 

''It is ever thus, my dear," Mrs. G. re- 
joined ; " persons remarkable for longevity, 
when they reflect upon the days, months, and 
years, that are fleeting away, and look back 
upon the past, cannot find terms strong 
enough to express their sense of the evanes- 
cence of life, and the rapid flight of time. 
Yet these reflections should not excite in us 
gloomy or desponding feelings ; but rather 
stimulate us to the cheerful and active per- 
formance of every duty — to the improvement 
of every opportunity which we can command, 
for cultivating those intellectual faculties that 
will survive the wreck of nature, and soar 
with expanded energies to that * better land,' 

* Where time doth not breathe on its fadeless bloom.' 

May our lives," she continued, " become a 
practical comment upon the knowledge we 
acquire, and the principles we establish, 


190 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

Thus will our hopes of obtaining that immor- 
tal crown— promised to the good and fcnthful 
— ^be as well-founded as those of the exem- 
plary Mrs. Ides. 


CHAPTER XV. 


Omcard, and all that's difficult recedes 
From still increasing interest that succeeds : 
Though rough the journey^ soon you'll reach the goaly 
When heighten'd pleasure will reward your toil. 

On Mrs. G.'s family being again assembled 
to resume their lessons in Botany, Charles 
said he had found a curious vine near the 
brook, of a bright yellow color, without 
leaves, and, as it appeared to him, without 
any root, On handing it to his mother, she 
remarked, " This is the Dodder (Cusciita). 
It is a parasitic plant — one that grows out of 
another ; you can see where it emerges frc^ 


BOTANY. 191 

the other plant, around the stem of which it 
twines. The roots are clasping, and con- 
stantly renewing. This is sometimes called 
gold-thread vine. You recollect the Misle- 
toe (Fi'sctem), of which you read a description 
not long since." 

" Yes, mother, — the golden bough of Vir- 
gil, and the plant worshiped by the Druids," 
Charles replied. 

" The same," rejoined Mrs. G. ; ^' that is 
also a parasitic plant. Can you tell me," 
she continued, " to what class the Dodder be- 
longs ?" 

Charles replied, " The Pentandria class, as 
it has five stamens. It lias also two pistils." 

Mrs. G. said, '' That constitutes the order. 
The orders of the first thirteen classes of 
the Linnsean system, are founded on the 
number of the styles, or sessile stigmas. In- 
stead of terminating the names of these orders 
with andria^ as you facetiously remarked with 
respect to the classes, gynia is added to the 
numeral." 


192 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

" Then," said Charles, " if it belongs to 
the first ^order, it it called Monogynia (120), 
having one style or sessile stigma ; and Digy- 
NiA (121), when it has two, as in this Dod- 
der." 

" You understand me," Mrs. G. replied. 
"Caroline, can you tell the order and name 
of a flower that has three styles or sessile 
stigmas ? " 

Caroline replied, " Trigynia (122) ; if four, 
Tetragynia (123) ; and if five, Pentagy- 
nia" (124). 

Mrs. G. handed them a Violet. 

" How beautiful," said Caroline^ " is this 
humble flower ! " 

" Always blooming," said Isabella, taking 
one of them, " and ever 

' Streak'd with jet thy glowing lip — 
Yet slight thy form, and low thy seat, 
And earthward bent thy gentle eye, 
Unapt the passing view to meet, 
When loftier flowers are flaunting by.' 

If Bryant had never written anything but that 


BOTANY. 193 

beautiful * Address to the Yellow Violet,' " 
she continued, " it Avould have immortalized 
him, in my opinion, both for the sweetness of 
its poetry and for his raising to notice this 
emblem of modesty." 

Charles said he could not determine whe- 
ther the Violet belonged to the Pentandria or 
Syngenesia class. " It has five stamens unit- 
ed by their anthers, but the flowers are not 
compound," he remarked. 

" That is an important distinction," re- 
plied Mrs. G. "If you observe it more ac- 
curately, you will perceive also the anthers 
are not united in a tube, but merely adhere 
together." 

" Then I must rank it with the fifth class, 
Monogynia order," said Charles. 

Mrs. G. resumed, " The umbelliferous flow- 
ers constitute a large portion of this very ex- 
tensive class. You recollect this kind of in- 
florescence." 

Charles and Caroline replied they did, add- 
ing, " The Caraway (Carum) and Dill (v3?ie- 
thum) are examples of umbels." 


194 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

Mrs. G. continued, " They belong to the 
second order, are five-petalled, and have two 
seeds. The sixth order, having six styles, or 
sessile stigmas, is called Hexagynia (125). 
The seventh order, Heptagynia (126), has 
seven. The eighth and ninth orders very 
rarely occur. The former takes the name of 
OcTOGYNiA (127) ; the latter, that of Ennea- 
GYNiA (128). The tenth order, Decagynia 
(129), has ten styles, or sessile stigmas.- The 
thirteenth order, Polygynia (130), has more 
than ten." 

" Has any flower more than ten styles ? " 
Caroline asked. 

" The Water plantain [Alisma plantago)^^^ 
Mrs. G. replied, " which is said to have been 
efficacious in the cure of hydropliobia, be- 
longs to the Polygynia order ; it has many 
styles." 

" To what class does it belong, mother ? " 
" To the sixth ; it lias only three petals." 
Charles examined a. Rose (Rosa)^ and said, 
^' This, I presume, belongs to the same or- 
der. I have counted more than ten styles^"' 


BOTANY. ^ 195 

" Ami this flowering Raspberry (Rubus)^^^ 
said Caroline, " has a great many." 

Mrs. G. told them they were both of the 
PoLYGYNiA order, and asked if they knew the 
class. 

Each replied, " Icosandria." 

She asked them the class and order of the 
Five-finger [Potentilla) , and the Buttercup 
[Ranunculus) . 

After examining them, they replied, " Both 
of these are of the thirteenth order. The 
Five-finger belongs to the twelfth class ; the 
Buttercup to tlie thirteenth, Polyandria." 

" We will now proceed to the orders of 
the fourteenth class," continued Mrs. G., 
'' which consists of two. The first order, 
Gymnospermia (131), has the seeds naked, 
which are almost universally four in num- 
ber, and may be seen around the base of tlie 
pistil, as soon as the flower expands. You 
can see it in this Hyssop (Hyssopus) .^"^ 

" This class," said Charles, " has four sta- 
mens, two long and two short." 


196 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

Mrs. G. replied in the affirmative. " In 
the second order of this class," she said, " the 
seeds are numerous, and enclosed in a cap- 
sule. It is distinguished by the name An- 
GiospERMiA (132), of which this Foxglove 
(Digitalis) is an example." 

" How very different the characters of the 
two orders appear," Charles remarked. 

" Their natures are equally distinct," Mrs. 
G. rejoined. " The first are numbered among 
our most medicinal and healthy herbs. In 
the second, the plants always contain, in va- 
rious degrees, a poisonous quality. The fif- 
teenth class has also two orders, distinguished 
by their pods, or siliques. In the first order, 
their length and breadth are nearly equal ; 
as the Peppergrass (Lepidium) . It is termed 
SiLicuLosA (133). The second order takes 
the name of Siliquosa (134), in which the 
length of the pods is more than double their 
breadth ; as the Wall-flower [Ckeiranthus) and 
Mustard (Sinapis). The orders of the six- 
teenth and seventeenth classes are founded on 


BOTANY. 197 

the number of their stamens, and take tlie 
names and characters of the preceding classes 
for the orders." 

" Mother, I do not understand," said 
Cliarlcs ; " do they take the names of the 
classes for the orders ? " 

"Yes ; this Cotton plant (Gossypkim), for 
instance — as the stamens are united in one set 
' — belongs to the Monadelphia class. Were 
it not for that character — since it has more 
than twenty stamens — it would be of the Po- 
lyandria class ; but we do not regard the pis- 
tils in this and the seventeenth class, but take 
the name descriptive of the number or situa- 
tion of the stamens, for the orders. Thus the 
Cotton plant ranks with the Monadelphia 
class, Polyandria order." 

I think I comprehend it," said Charles. 
" This flower of the Bean (Phaseolns) has ten 
stamens ; and as they are' united in two sets, 
it must be placed in tlie seventeenth, or Dia- 
delphia class — the tenth, or Decandria order." 

" Yeu have defined it very correctly," said 


198 THE PASTIME OP LEARNING. 

Mrs. G. " I refer to you, Caroline, for th'e 
class and order of the Geranium [Pelargoni^ 

On examining the flower, Caroline said, 
** The stamens are united in one set ; that is 
the character of the sixteenth class : the num- 
ber is seven ; which gives it the character of 
the seventh class, for the order. Is it Hep- 
tandria order, mother ? " 

"■ Yes, my dear. You have both overcome 
with ease, what is generally considered diffi- 
cult for young botanists to understand, — tak- 
ing the classes for the orders." 

Mrs. G. submitted to them several flowers, 
requesting the class and order of each, and 
the other characters with which they had 
become acquainted. 

Charles examined a flower of this Clover 
( Trifoliim) , and said it belonged to the Dia- 
delphia class, Decandria order, — the flower 
papilionaceous, its inflorescence a head. 

Caroline selected a Hollyhock (dlthm), 
and said it belonged to the Monadelphia 


DOMESTIC SKETCHES. 199 

class, Polyandria order, — monophyllous ca- 
lyx, double, the corol liliaceous. 

Mrs. G. commended their prompt defini- 
tions, and proposed deferring the orders of 
the eighteenth class till their next lesson. 


CHAPTER XVI. 

" Mind, mind, alone, 
The living fountain in itself contains 
Of beauteous and sublime." 

" How agreeable it is to have Mrs. Arling^- 
ton in the White Cottage again," said Charles. 
" Do not you think so, mother ? " 

Mrs. G. replied, " Most certainly ; I think 
her society an agreeable acquisition to our 
neighborhood, and welcome the return of 
herself and family with much pleasure." 

Charles continued, '' Emily is the most 
lovely girl — young lady, I suppose I must 


200 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

call her, since she has entered her teens, as the 
phrase is — I ever knew ; and the most beau- 
tiful, present company excepted." 

" How long have you been such a devotee 
to beauty ? " Anne inquired. " It i? but a 
few days since you disclaimed all pretensions 
to admiration of a person on that account." 

" My sentiments are not changed, Anne, on 
that point," he replied. " I still repeat, in 
Addison's language — - 

" 'Tis not a set of features or complexion, 
Or tincture of the skin, that I admire." 

It is the soul-speaking eye ; the mind, diflus- 
ing itself over the features, and irradiating 
the countenance with the ever-beaming glow 
of intelligence, animation, and truth ; which 
is the beauty to attract my attention, and in- 
spire me with eloquence in its praise." 

Anne smiled at his enthusiasm upon the 
subject, and acknowledged she thought Emi- 
ly Arlington's countenance expressive of much 
sweetness, and intellect ; and that her manners 


DOMESTIC SKETCHES. 201 

were remarkably modest and graceful for one 
at her age, Aviien persons are seldom free 
from some degree of awkwardness. ♦ 

Caroline inquired how long they had been 
absent ; adding, " Emily, 1 recollect, was not 
larger— when she used to be our playmate, 
Charles — than Emma is at present ; and now 
she is quite tall." 

Mrs. G. replied, " They have been absent 
about four years, — a space of time which oc- 
casions a more perceptible change in the ap- 
pearance of youth, than in individuals at any 
other period of life. No doubt she is equally 
surprised at the alteration visible in your ap- 
pearance," 

Isabella remarked, that Mr. George Arlino-- 
ton appeared not to have lost any of his fond- 
ness for ladies' society during his absence. 
'' Do you recollect how gallant he used to 
be, Anne ? — always ready to accompany us 
in our walks and rides." 

Anne said she at that time often thought it 
was more as a relief from study, than from 
12* 


202 THE PASTIME OP LEARNING. 

any positive pleasure he derived from their 
society, that he sought their company. 

Isabella looked a negative to this assertion, 
but said nothing. 

Mr. G. remarked, that his talents and assi- 
duity had acquired for him no small degree 
of fame in the Medical College at Philadel- 
phia ; and during his subsequent absence in 
Europe, v/here he had completed his studies. 
Honorary marks of distinction had been 
awarded him, for talents, principles, and con- 
duct, most satisfactory to his mother — and 
sufficient to excite in him some degree of va- 
nity, had he not the shield of humility and 
the helmet of good sense to repel that insi- 
dious intruder. 

Anne inquired if George was Mrs. Arling- 
ton's only son, and w4iether Emily's mother 
had long been dead. 

Mrs. G. replied, " George was her youngr 
est ; and is now her only son, she having lost 
two or three in infancy. Emily's mother was 
her eldest child and only daughter. She was 


DOMESTIC SKETCHES. 203 

married to her cousin of the same name, 
when very young ; between whom an affec- 
tion — which commenced in chihlhood — was 
early matured. But their wedded happiness 
was not of long duration. Soon after the birth 
of Emily, business obliged Mr. Arlington to 
embark for England, wliich he did in a vessel 
that was soon afterwards wrecked on the 
coast. As he was an expert swimmer, his ex- 
ertions were unremitted in endeavoring to 
rescue his fellow passengers from a watery 
grave, till his strength failed. He was pre- 
vented from sinking, and conveyed to the 
shore. But he revived only for a few mo- 
ments ; he implored blessings upon his wife 
and child, and the vital spark was ex- 
tinct ! This melancholy catastrophe called 
forth the deepest sympathy from the survi- 
vors of the wreck, many of whom owed 
their deliverance to his exertions, and all 
bore testimony to his humanity, his resolu- 
tion, and noble disinterestedness. His lovely 
widow, on receiving information of Iiis hero- 
12t 


204 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

ic self-sacrifice, felt a consolation under her 
loss, from the assurance that his death had 
proved to him a crown of rejoicing. But 
her constitution being naturally delicate, her 
health gradually sunk vmder the affliction. 
Mrs. Arlington received the little Emma from 
her dying daughter as a pledge of love, — as a 
sacred gift bestowed by Providence to fill the 
void in her heart, caused by these repeated 
losses, and to train it for immortality. 

"1 had my fears," continued Mrs. G., 
*'that her affection, thus centring in her son 
— then a youth of the age of fourteen — and 
Emily, would render her so extremely indul- 
gent as to unfit them for usefulness, and con- 
sequently detract from their happiness. But 
the result has proved otherwise. Emily does 
much credit to her grandmother's judicious 
management, and George appears to be all a 
parent can desire." 

" Has she been long a widow .'' " Isabella 
asked. 

"Many years," replied Mrs. G. "She 
was a widow when I first knew her." 


BOTANT. 205 

" We will now resume the orders, and 
with them conclude our elementary instruc- 
tion in Botany." 

'' I wish," said Caroline to Charles, " Emi- 
ly would learn of us, if she has not already 
studied Botany, that we may collect flowers 
and find them out together." 

Charles said he should desire no higher 
pleasure than to impart to her what know- 
ledge he had acquired. 

Mrs. G. recommenced the lesson, saying, 
" The eighteenth class has five orders, which 
are distinguished by the nature of their flo- 
rets. They are called Polygamia, from po- 
lus, many — gamiaj marriage ; many unions. 
The first order is termed Polygamia squa- 
lls (135), which is significant of its charac- 
ter, having all the florets perfect. Each flo- 
ret is furnished with five stamens, a pistil, 
and one seed ; as this Dandelion [Leontodon).''^ 

Charles and Caroline pulled off" the florets, 
and on examining them they found each one 
13 


206 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

answered the descripti^on their mother had 
given of it. 

" This kind of floret," continued Mrs. G., 
selecting one of them, " is called Ugulate, 
from ligula, or strap. You observe each pe- 
tal is like a single strap towards its termina- 
tion, being tubular at the base only. This 
forms a generic distinction. In this Tho- 
Youghwort (Eupatoriiim)^ which is so useful a 
medicine in producing perspiration, the flow- 
ers are discoid. All the florets are tubular ; 
those in the disk — which is the centre of the 
flower — and the marginal florets also, which 
are called the rays." 

" What is this, mother, that remains on the 
germ ? " asked Caroline. 

That is called the aigrette^ or egret. It is 
the crown of the seeds. In this Dandelion 
the egret is like down ; in other plants it is 
hairy, or feathery. The second order," Mrs. 
G. continued, " is called Polygamia super- 
FLUA (136). This term is also significant of 
its character. It has the florets of the disk 


BOTANY. 207 

perfect ; and those of the ray only, pistillate : 
cacli forming perfect jseed. You. can see the 
difference in this China aster (vaster chinensis), 
the flowers of which are distinguished by the 
term radiate^ — having their rays ligulate, and 
the disk flowers tubular." 

'M think," said Caroline, " the orders of 
this class affbrd the most interest of any of 
the classes." 

" It is generally considered the most inter- 
esting," resumed Mrs. G. " Any one cup 
discern the class at a glance, and also the dif- 
ferent orders, though marked by such nice 
distinctions. In the third order, Polygamia 
FRUSTRANEA (137), the florcts of the disk are 
perfect ; and those of the ray neutral, or des- 
titute of stamens and a pistil, — as the Sun- 
flower ( Hclianthus) . " 

" This flower does not require a micros- 
cope to discern itis stamens and pistils," said 
Caroline. " I think it may be called the 
Mammoth of flowers." 

^' Yet large as it is," Mrs. G. remarked, 


208 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

*' it is imperceptibly drawn by the rays of 
the sun, — ever facing -it in its course from 
one part of the horizon to the other." 

Charles said he had read that attempts had 
been made to cultivate this plant for the oil 
contained in the seeds. 

Mr. G. said, " It will probably become a 
source of national wealth, when more exten- 
sively cultivated ; for which the soil in New 
England is peculiarly adapted." 

" I think the name designates the character 
of the order," Charles remarked, "the ob- 
ject of the rays being frustrated from their 
not producing seed." 

" The name of the fourth order is also very 
appropriate," resumed Mrs. G. "It is called 

PoLYGAMIA NECESSARIA (138). The florcts 

of the disk are furnished with stamens only, 
and those of the ray with only pistils ; the 
latter forming the seed, in a circular ring 
around the centre of the flower — as in this 
Soup marygold (Calendula). The fifth or- 
der, POLYGAMIA SEGREGATA (139), is distin- 


BOTANY. 209 

guished by the florets all being perfect, and 
each having a perianth or calyx of its own. 
I have never seen an example of this order, 
and have heard of only two, neither of which 
are indigenous to New England. The Ele- 
phant foot (Elephantopus) is said to be the 
only native of North America of this order, 
and this grows in the southern States." 

Mrs. G. continued, "The orders of the 
nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first class- 
es, are characterized by the names and cha- 
racters of the preceding classes ; or rather by 
tlie same distinctions as the orders of the six- 
teenth and seventeenth classes. I wish you to 
examine this Milk weed (Asclepias), and' in- 
form me — one of you in simple, the other in 
botanical language — its class and order." 

" It belongs to the nineteenth class," Caro- 
line said, " having its stamens inserted on the 
pistil." 

" Gynandria," Charles added, " and the 
fifth order, as it has five stamens. I must 
Jeave the technical term for you, Caroline." 


210 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

Caroline said, half aloud, " The name of 
the class that has five stamens of equal length 
is Pentandria. It is of the Pentandria order, 
mother. What is the name of this curious 
pod ? " 

"A pericarp, with one valve tliat opens 
lengthwise, like this, on one side only, is 
called a /oZZic/e." Mrs. G. continued, '^ You 
recollect the distinction of the twentieth and 
twenty-first classes." 

They replied in the affirmative, and added, 
" We are to take. the names and characters of 
the first thirteen classes, for the orders." 

" You are correct," said Mrs. G. " There 
is an Jlmbrosia^ which is a very pretty name 
for an ugly weed." 

" It is what we call Hog weejcl, mother," 
said Charles. 

" True. I Avish you to give me the class 
and order of this flower, Caroline ; and 
Charles that of the Squash (Cucurbita) .^^ , 

They examined them, and Caroline said, 
" The lower flowers of this raceme, or pani- 


BOTANY. 211 

cle (it seems to partake of l)otli), has flowers 
with pistils. Tlie seeds of* some are already 
formed. The upper flowers have only sta- 
mens, of which there are Ave. Of course the 
class is Monoecia, the order Pentandria. How 
easy it is to discover the class and order. It 
rewards one for going over those hard names, 
to find out the flower with so little trouble." 

Charles said he could distinguish the dif- 
ference between the pistillate and staminate 
flowers of the Squash, merely from passing 
them, the germ of the pistillate flower being 
inferior, and so very large. '' It is," he con- 
tinued, '• of tlie Monoecia class, and the Mo- 
nadelphia order, as the stamens are united by 
their filaments in one set." 

" The Honey locust {Gleditschia)^'^ Mrs. G. 
remarked, " is an example of the twenty-first 
class, Octandria order. The next opportuni- 
ty I Avill explain to you the orders of the 
twenty-second class." 

" That," said Charles, " is the fag end of 
the classes." 


212 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 


CHAPTER XVII. 

Swift pass the hours, when hearts glow with delight ; 
Then time wings their way, and we scarce heed their flight : 
For we count not the moments when stingless they pass, 
Or number life's sands as they fall from the glass. 

Charles' vacation having commenced, he 
was at liberty to devote much of his time to 
Isabella and Anne, his sisters, and their young 
companions the Miss Nevilles, Emily Ar- 
lington, and others, who formed their society 
within the circle of a few miles. As he was 
one day descanting upon the charms of Emily 
Arlington, she approached the piazza where 
they were sitting, her hands filled with flow- 
ers — her bonnet blown back, displaying a 
profusion of hair that Vv^as still suffered to 
shade her neck with its natural ringlets — her 
countenance radiant with animation, and 
glowing from exercise ; and thus unconscious- 
ly presented to their view Charles' heauideal, 
which proved no discredit to his judgment 


RURAL SKETCHES. 213 

or taste. And no one who thus saw her 
would have been inclined to question the jus- 
tice of applying to this unsophisticated being 
— who appeared to be gifted with all the sim- 
plicity and innocence of nattn'e, as well as 
charms of the mind — those lines of Dr. 
Young on beauty, which he had just re- 
peated. 

" What's female beauty but an air divine 
Through which the soul's all gentle graces shine — 
That like the Sun irradiates all between ? 
The body charms, because the mind is seen." 

Emily had called to fetch them some flowers 
for their botanical exercises, and with an in- 
vitation from Mrs. Arlington to ride with 
her to Cedar Mount, — a place a few miles dis- 
tant. 

Mrs. G. assented, and proposed having 
their own carriage in readiness also, that all 
the party might participate in the pleasure. 

Emily recollected that part of her commis- 
sion she liad not executed. Mr. Arlington 
wished to have some of the ladies ride on 


214 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING, 

horseback, and had volunteered his pony for 
the service of one of them. " I can assure 
you," she added, " he is very gentle ; I ride 
him frequently without fear of danger." 

Mr. G. said; Anne's palfrey should be sad- 
dled, and he would mount his own horse, 
and join the equestrian party ; which was to 
consist of Isabella and Anne, together with 
Mr. Arlington. The latter soon arrived with 
his mother ; and the cavalcade were immedi- 
ately prepared for their excursion. 

Charles proposed walking with Emily and 
Caroline, by a shorter route ; but the distance 
Mr. G. thought too great, and dissuaded them 
from it, — consenting, however, to Charles' 
second proposal, that of giving them a drive 
in his gig, after many cautionary charges that 
no danger might be incurred by Kls temerity. 

Emma and Julia were admitted into the 
carriage, with Mrs. Arlington and their mo- 
ther ; and never was there an excursion of 
pleasure commenced with brighter prospectSj 
happier faces, or more cheerful feelings. 


RURAL SKETCHES. 215 

Botli Isabella and Anne had taken lessons 
at the Riding School ; but the health of the 
fornaer requiring much exercise of tiiat na- 
ture, she had become a more practised horse- 
woman than Anne, — having often rode with 
Mr. Egremont to Oak Grove, and about the 
grounds in its vicinity. Yet the timidity of 
her character led her to prefer Anne's palfrey 
to one she had never mounted.. 

In consequence of this arrangement, Mr. 
Arlington became more exclusively Anne's 
attendant, with a view of directing her in 
such management as his horse required. 
This afforded them an opportunity of con- 
versing on various subjects, from grave to 
gay, and thus of obtaining a better knowledge 
of -each other's character than during any of 
their previous interviews, since the late re- 
newal of their intercourse. 

That it was mutually agreeable is not to be 
doubted, since they were equally surprised 
at so soon reaching their destination, when 
they had proceeded at so slow a pace ; exem- 


216 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

plifying the correctness of the poet's asser- 
tion — who Avas a keen discerner of the hu- 
man heart, as well as a true lover of nature — 
that in the interviews of those whose senti- 
ments an^l feelings assimilate, 

" Time as he passes has a Dove's wings, 
Unfail'd and swift, and of a silken sound." 

The picturesque scenery which presented 
itself to their view, as they ali^ted, after 
having reached the brow of an eminence, 
requires the pencil of a Fisher, or the poeti- 
cal pen of a Bryant, to do it justice. 

There was a circular valley surrounded by 
terraces rising one above the other, forming a 
complete amphitheatre, the summits of which 
were covered with Cedars, and other more 
lofty trees, that afforded a sufficient shade 
to render it a cool retreat at the warmest 
season. 

A limpid spring issued at a short distance, 
which, having been analyzed, was discovered , 
to possess some medicinal virtues. Thither, 


RURAL SKETCHES. 217 

in consequence, valetudinarians had occasion- 
ally resorted. Seats had been erected near, 
and it was often frequented also by parties 
whose taste led them to select this retreat, in 
their pursuit of pleasure, furnishing them- 
selves with refreshments and music. Here, 
under the canopy of the clear sky, groups 
were seen, " tripping on the light fantastic 
toe," to the harmonious strains of instrumen- 
tal music, which reverberated from hill to 
hill, but which vied not in melody with that 
of the v^ocal choristers, — the legitimate ten- 
ants of the grove. 

Isabella had never been there before. AH 
recollections of the spot had vanished from 
the memory of Mr. Arlington. Thus novelty 
heightened their admiration of the surround- 
ing beauties. Their enjoyment of the scene 
was, however, soon interrupted by a summons 
to return. The distant thunder, and sudden- 
ly overcast sky, portended a rapidly ap- 
proaching shower, which hastened their de- 
parture from a scene fraught with so much 


220 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

miliar terms which had formerly contributed 
so much to their happiness. 

The following day Mrs. G. explained the 
n^itural orders of the Cryptogamous class, 
which consists of six orders. " The first," 
she said, " is called Filices (140), which in- 
cludes the Ferns, and bears the fruit on the 
back summit, or near the base of the leaves, 
of which those brown grains on the edge of 
the under part of the leaf of this Brake {Pte- 
ris) is an example." 

Caroline was surprised that she had never 
noticed them, when they now appeared so 
conspicuous. 

Charles said she reminded him of persons 
who could never discern a likeness in a pro- 
file till informed for whom it was taken, and 
then would easily discover the resemblance. 

Caroline replied, laughing, " No doubt it, 
is my want of penetration, but we often over- 
look objects, you know, merely because they 
are not pointed out to our notice." 

Mrs. G. resumed, " The second order is 


1^ 


BOTANY. 221 

called Musci (141), or Mosses. These bear 
fruit onJeafy stems, or branches, in one-cell- 
ed capsules, that open at the top — as you see 
in this brown flower of the Fork moss [Di- 
cranum) — being covered with a lid, or calyp- 
tre." 

Charles said he had frequently noticed 
them, and thought they were only the dried 
leaves or stalks of the moss. 

" It is curious and beautiful, examined 
through the microscope," Caroline said. " I 
wish some lover of nature and poetry would 
write a sonnet on the fruit of the Moss, with 
its hood looking like a grenadier's cap." 

" The third order," continued Mrs. G., 
" is called Hepatic.e (142), or Liverwort 
(Marchantia) . The fruit consists of four- 
celled capsules, opening by valves, as this 
Brook liverwort." 

Charles inquired if that was the Liverwort 
recommended as of so much efficacy in con- 
sumptions. 

'' No," Mrs. G. replied ; ''that is the Ik- 
13* 


222 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

patica triloba^ often called Liverleaf, and be- 
longing to the thirteenth class. It grows 
near the roots of trees, on the north side of 
hills. The fourth order consists of Alg^ 
(143), or Sea weeds, which bear filamentous 
fruit in an aquatic frond." 

"Mother, I do not understand what is 
meant by a frond." 

" It is a leathery or gelatinous leaf, or leaf- 
like substance, from or within which the fruit 
is produced. The term is exclusively applied 
to the Cryptogamia class. Lichenes, or Li- 
chens, constitute the fifth order. These bear 
fruit on a fibrous, gelatinous, or compact 
frond. They are found on rocks and trees, 
and often are called Dry moss. On some 
species of it, the color of the cups or knobs 
is a beautiful scarlet, of a similar form to 
these, which you see are brown. This is a 
species of the J5ce?7ii/ces." 

Charles and Caroline expressed much sur- 
prise on noticing the regularity of the cups 
or horns. 


BOTANY. 223 


->'The sixth order," Mrs. G. resumed, "is 
called Fungi j or^ Mushrooms. You know the 
Touchwood (Boletus)^ in the form of a liorse's 
hoof ; that is an example of this order."' 


CHAPTER XVIir. 

■~ ' • ' ^ 

■^hpugh evil may pervade- fair Natiive's work, 
And latent danger in sonic blo?soms lurk, 
Yet a panacea — in linnds of skillr— 
Ti^ey often prove, assuaging human ill. 

'*' The world is full of poctr^ — the rtir 
Is livinw with it^ spirit. Earth is v.ei I'd 
And mantled with its beauty." 

.Mrs. G. said it was her intention to give 
them some information respecting poisonous 
plants ; both that they miglit avoid them, 
and deter otliers from liandiino; them. 

'• Those with o/ie pistil and five stamens," 
she commenced, ^'when they have a disa- 
13t 


224 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

greeable smell, and dull color, are always 
poisonous. Their unpleasant odor will in- 
duce you to avoid these. The degree of poi- 
son diminishes as the color becomes brighter, 
and their perfume more agreeable, which 
often occurs in the same genus. When a 
plant is removed frona a very moist soil, to 
one that is more dry, it loses much of the 
narcotic principle." 

"Are those of the first order the only 
plants of theiifth class that contain poison ? " 
Charles inquired. 

"No," Mrs. G. replied ; " those of the se- 
cond ordery of the umbelliferous description 
of plants, when they grow on wet land — as 
the poison Hemlock [Coniwn maculata), of 
which we see so much in ditches and unculti- 
vated land by the wayside — are very poison- 
ous ; while those others which are produced 
from a dry soil, and have a pleasant flavor- 
as the Coriander (Coriandrum) , Caraway (Ca- 
rum), &c. — are harmless, and stomachic. 
Plants with labiate corols, having their seeds 


BOTANY. 225 

in capsules — which are mostly of the four- 
teenth class, second order — are ])oisonous." 

" The Foxglove (Digitalis)^ mother, is of 
that class and order." 

'^ Yes," said Mrs. -G. ; '' but in the hands 
of a judicious practitioner it is administered 
with safety, and often Avith efficacy. Thus 
poisonous plants are ranked among our most 
useful medicines. Those plants from which 
issues a milky juice — as the Celandine (Cheli- 
doniiim) and Milk weed [Jhcltpias) — are of a 
poisonous nature. Also those which have 
any aj)pendage to the calyx or corol, if they 
have more tlian eight stamens — as the Lark- 
spur (Delphinium) and Monk's hood [Aconi- 
tum) — ^frequently contain some degree of tliis 
quality." 

''The Nasturtion {Trop(Bolum)^ mother, 
has a horn on the corol ; does that contain 
poison ? " Charles asked. 

" I must answer the question," Mrs. G. re- 
plied, " by asking you how many stamens it 
has." 

14 


226 


THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 


"Oh," said Charles, " that I overlooked ; 
it belongs to the eighth class — has eight sta- 
mens." 

" There is this general rule, by which you 
may avoid poisonous plants, that 1 w^ish you 
to remember. Plants with few stamens, un- 
less the number is live, seldom contain any 
of the poisonous principle. But when there 
are twelve or more — unless they are inserted 
on the calyx — if the smell is nauseous and 
disagreeable, the plant ought to be avoided." 

" Are plants of the Syngenesia class harm- 
less, mother .^ " 

" Nearly all the ^quales, or first order of 
the eighteenth class, afford opium. At some 
future opportunity," Mrs. G. continued, " I 
shall be pleased to descant upon the noble 
forest trees of our climate, of which the Mag- 
nolias of the South — the Sycamores of the 
West — and the Elms of New England, are 
unrivalled in beauty and size." 

Charles said, " Mother, will you tell me to 
what class the Camphor tree belongs ^ " 


BOTANY. 227 

" To the ninth ; it belongs to the Laurus 
genus, of which the Sassafras is a species ; it 
is a native of Japan," Mrs. G. replied. 

Charles said he had read that the gum 
guaiacum was produced by the resin of the 
Lignumvitae. , 

Mrs. G. said, " They procure it by boiling 
the chips and saw dust ; and by making an 
incision in the live tree, from which it issues. 
It is a valuable medicine in rheumatic and 
other diseases.- This tree grows to a great 
size in the West India Islands, of which it is 
a native. Its botanical name is Guaiacum offi- 
cinale.''^ 

Caroline requested her mother to direct 
them in what manner to ascertain the genus 
and species of a flower. 

Mrs. G. selected a Larkspur for the pur- 
pose, and said, " You will readily discover 
that this belongs to the thirteenth class, third 
order, which will direct you where to seek 
it in one of the Manuals on Botany which 
you have. You observe it has no calyx — is 


228 THE PASTIME OP LEARNING. 

iive-petalled — the petals unequal — nectary 
two-cleft, and horned behind. This will 
lead you to look for the one answering that 
description in the thirteenth class, third or- 
der, where you will find it is arranged under 
the genus Delphinium. The Monk's hood 
(Jlconitum) is similar in all these respects, ex- 
cept that its upper petal is vaulted ; and it 
has two nectaries, which are hooded. Some 
such nice, and often almost imperceptible dis- 
tinction, characterises a genus. Among the 
specific descriptions of this genus, you will find 
that the Jlzurcum species — both as it respects 
tlie stiff stem, and many-cleft linear leaves — - 
applies to this Larkspur. Of course it is Del- 
phinium azureum.''^ 

Scarcely was their lesson concluded, when 
to their surprise and pleasure Mr. Egremont 
unexpectedly arrived. Having transacted his 
business more speedily than he expected when 
he last wrote, lie had immediately embarked, 
and favorable winds expedited his return. 
The youthful pair who are placed in the 


DOMESTIC SKETCHES. 229 

same situation with himself and Isabella, can 
imagine their emotions at meeting after an 
absence of many months. To others, any at- 
tempt at description would probably fail to 
excite interest. Suffice it to say, their happi- 
ness was mutual. Charles was overjoyed 
that Mr. Esremont had arrived in season to 
unite in the celebration of his birthday anni- 
versary, which would occur the next week. 

Their party was soon augmented by the 
addition of Mrs. Arlington and her son. 
Emily had preceded them, having brought 
her Album with the request that Anne would 
write in it ; wliich she had complied with, 
and had just finished the lines when this ad- 
dition to their party entered. Mr. Arlington 
toolv the book ; and detecting the piece Anne 
had written from the ink being still wet, at 
the request of the company he read aloud the 
following 

IMPROMPTU. 

There is a beauty wliich survives its bloom, 
And sufters no decay from Winter's gloom ; 


230 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

There is a gem, than diamond rays more. bright^ 
The darkest cloud illuming with its light; 
And more attractive hue than decks the Rose — ■ 
The tinge which innocence and truth disclose. 
Virtue and Modesty alone secure 
Unfading charms. Those only can endure. 
Such are the graces that the wise would gain — 
Perennial blessings— verier sought in vain ; 
Which, w^ith Religion's star, that guides to peace. 
Will lead to happiness that ne'er shall cease. 

Though Anne professed to have no claim 
upon the talents requisite for writing poetry, 
Mr. Arlington knew she sometimes breathed 
her thoughts in verse, — Isabella having shown 
him two or three pieces of her composition ; 
and had not Emily's significant look divulged 
it, he would have known her to have been 
the author of these simple, unpretending 
lines. Delicacy, however, forbade his mak- 
ing any comments upon them. 

Mr. G. remarked, " There are few people 
who have a feeling perception of the beauties 
of Nature, but can express their sentiments in 
harmonious lines if they would but give the 
reins to their imagination, and exercise their 
talents for the purpose. 


DOMESTIC SKETCHES. 231 

Mr. Arlington said, '' There is a poetry of 
feeling conspicuous in some authors, who are 
wholly unconscious of the power they pos- 
sess of producing sweet strains of melody, 
from their never having attempted to make a 
rhyme." 

Mrs. Arlington remarked, she thought im- 
agination too often repressed in youth, by 
the money-loving world, who consider 
wealth '' the first, the second, the third re- 
quisite," to happiness. " I allow w^ealth," 
she continued^ '' its due rank among the 
blessings of life ; since it enables tho^e who 
possess it, and have the disposition to im- 
prove it aright, to ameliorate the sufferings of 
their fellow beings, and thus diffuse happi- 
ness to others, which is reflected back upon 
their own hearts. This is the highest enjoy- 
ment wealth can afford. But imagination, 
under proper regulations, is an independent 
source of happiness. It is itself the love of 
nature, and cherishes within us that love of 
virtue, truth, and goodness, which is so in 


232 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

harmony with the perfection of the Deity — 
' whose goodness is over all His works — 
whose nature and name is love ! ' It also 
inspires us with a fondness for reading, which 
often proves a solace at the decline of life — 
under the frowns of misfortune — and, when it 
is still more requisite, ' when friends are 
few.'" 

Mr. Egremont said, he recollected reading 
a- pertinent reply of Franklin, on being asked 
who was most to be pitied. " Tiiat man," 
he said, " on a rainy day, who knows not 
how to read." " I think," he. continued, 
*' he might have added, and one who has no 
taste for reading." 

Mr. G. remarked, '' The only danger to be 
apprehended, is from an over-excited imagi- 
nation ; wMiich, when indulged without due 
restrictions, and judicious guidance, detracts 
from the enjoyment of common blessings, 
and prevents a participation in the necessary 
occupations of life, — ^thus perverting those or- 
dinary gifts which Heaven designs as a con- 
stant source of happiness." 


DOMESTIC SKETCHES. 2S3 

After Mrs. Arlington and her family liad 
taken their departure, Mr. Egremont spoke 
with much enthusiasm of her good sense and 
agreeable manners. He said she was one of 
the most finished, polite ladies, he had ever 
met with. 

Mr. G. said she had been favored, in early 
life, by intercourse with society of tlie most 
polished manners ; at a period when tlie 
Court manners of Europe, and a knowledjre 
of etiquette, were considered more indispen- 
sable as an accomplishment than they are at 
present. " But it is easy to discover that Mrs. 
Arlington's is not a mere external polish, such 
as a Cliesteriield would recommend ; the 
heart shows itself in all her actions. Benevo-. 
lence of feeling, which regards others' ease 
and happiness, together witli a liighly endow- 
ed mind, constitute the source and charm of 
her refinement. This is the only true polite- 
ness,— such, Miss H. More would say, as the 
spirit of the Gospel recommends, and wliich 
is forcibly exemplified ip her character of 
St. Paul, tliat she has so ably deUneated»" 


234 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

Their usual hour for retiring had passed ; 
and after their customary family orisons, and 
parting salutations, each sought tire downy 
couch, and in the repose of nature forgot 
their joys. 


CHAPTER XIX. 

*' Bring flowers — bring flowers " — 
A garland to weave ; 
'Tis virtue alone 
The meed can receive. 

No sybil or fairies — 

Nor even fate ladies — 

Need appear on the green, 

To give zest to the scene ; 
Yet of innocent mirth — loud echoes resound ; 
And hearts of affection with pleasures resound. 

Mrs. G., unknown to the other members 
of the family — except Isabella and Anne, 
whose services were in requisition upon the 


RURAL SKETCHES. 235 

occasion — had been for a day or two busily- 
engaged in making preparations for the festi- 
vities with which she intended to honor 
Charles' birth-day. The anniversary arrived, 
and he received the congratulations and wish- 
es of his friends, on entering his fifteenth 
year. Mrs. Arlington, and her family ; the 
Miss Nevilles, and their brother Edward, 
who had entered College, and was then at 
home on his vacation ; and a few other 
friends, had assembled to celebrate the day. 

After dinner, Mrs. G. said she had prepared 
the dessert under the shade of a tree, and led 
the way through the garden to a sequestered 
spot, to which they had given the appellation 
of Eden Vale. 

As tlie party descended an eminence, on a 
sudden was presented to tlieir view a sylvan 
scene, which appeared more like the enchant- 
ment raised by some magic wand — that is re- 
presented in fairy tales — than reality. 

Within an area, formed by four noble Sy- 
camores, the trunks of which were encircled 


236 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

by the Virgin's bower (Clematis)^ with its 
silky fibres— the Wax-work (Celastrus), with 
its golden berries — the shining-leaved Green 
briar (Smilax) — and the scarlet Honeysuckle 
(Lonicera), was spread a table, over whicli 
those vines had been gracefully entwined, 
and which formed a luxuriant flowery ca- 
nopy. 

At a short distance beyond, was seen at in- 
tervals through a row of Willows — which 
were arrano^ed at its side with so much regu- 
larity, that Nature apjieared as if striving with 
Art in forming them into a colonnade — a 
smooth flowing brook, on the surface of 
which the beams of the sun sparkled, as if in 
frolicsome glee at the novel yet welcome in- 
trusion of their hitherto uninvaded retreat. 

The table was covered with cake, and a 
profusion of the various kinds of fruit which 
the month of August produces, — tastefully ar- 
ranged, and fancifully decorated with the 
rich flowers of the season. 

In the centre of the table were suspended 


RURAL SKETCHES. 237 

— from an elevated pillar — garlands of flow- 
ers, on the summit of which was the wreath 
— formed of Evergreen, emblematic of never- 
fading virtue — that Avas to crown the hero of 
the scene. To this standard, as was his cus- 
tom on his birtliday anniversaries, he re- 
newed his allegiance ; resolving to nurture its 
sentiments in his heart, and never to deviate 
from its dictates by his conduct. 

Around the centre, cornucopias were ar- 
ranged in a circle ; each enclosing a bouquette 
of flowers, containing inscriptions em- 
blematic of them or descriptive of charac- 
ters. Those aff*orded the party an opportu- 
nity of displaying their taste in the selection, 
and not unfrequently furnished a criterion of 
their judgment of those to whom they pre- 
sented them. 

In one of the cakes a ring had been placed ; 
and as all precedence of age was on this occa- 
sion abolished, the youthful female who 
should be so fortunate as to obtain the 
charmed piece in which it was concealed, 


236 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

by the Virgin's bower {Clematis)^ with its 
silky fibres — the Wax-work (Celastrus)^ with 
its golden berries — the shining-leaved Green 
briar (Smilax) — and the scarlet Honeysuckle 
[Lonicera)^ was spread a table, over which 
those vines had been gracefully entwined, 
and which formed a luxuriant flowery ca- 
nopy. 

At a short distance beyond, was seen at in- 
tervals through a row of Willows — which 
were arranged at its side with so much regu- 
larity, that Nature appeared as if striving with 
Art in forming them into a colonnade — a 
smooth flowing brook, on the surface of 
which the beams of the sun sparkled, as if in 
frolicsome glee at the novel yet welcome in- 
trusion of their hitherto uninvaded retreat. 

The table was covered with Cake, and a 
profusion of the various kinds of fruit which 
the month of August produces, — tastefully ar- 
ranged, and fancifully decorated with the 
rich flowers of the season. 

In the centre of tlic table were suspended 


RURAL SKETCHES. 237 

— from an elevated pillar — garlands of flow- 
ers, on the summit of which was the wreath 
— formed of Evergreen, emblematic of never- 
fading virtue — that was to crown the hero of 
the scene. To this standard, as was his cus- 
tom on his birtliday anniversaries, he re- 
newed his allegiance ; resolving to nurture its 
sentiments in his heart, and never to deviate 
from its dictates by his conduct. 

Around the centre, cornucopias were ar- 
ranged in a circle ; each enclosing a bouquette 
of flowers, containing inscriptions em- 
blematic of them or descriptive of charac- 
ters. Those afforded the party an opportu- 
nity of displaying their taste in the selection, 
and not unfrequently furnished a criterion of 
their judgment of those to whom they pre- 
sented them. 

In one of the cakes a ring had been placed ; 
and as all precedence of age was on this occa- 
sion abolished, the youtJiful female who 
should be so fortunate as to obtain the 
charmed piece in which it was concealed, 


238 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

was to be elevated to the honor of crowning 
the youth, and unanimously proclaimed the 
presiding goddess of the festival. It was with 
unconcealed pleasure that Charles recognized 
Emily as the successful candidate, upon whom 
this distinction had devolved. 

The cornucopias aiforded much amuse- 
ment. Some of them contained puns, that 
were highly diverting to all ; but which, di- 
vested of the appropriate accompaniments of 
scenery and character, would fail of their jest 
in the repetition. 

Mr. Egremont selected, as the most appro- 
priate offering for Isabella, the humble Vio- 
let (Fio/a). On unrolling its envelop, she 
read — 

The Violet blue, 
Like Constancy true — 
Allow me to say 
Just emblem of you 
Presents to my view. 
Accept it, I pray. 

Edward Neville presented the Evening 


RURAL SKETCHES. 239 

primrose (CEnothera) to Caroline, with the 
inscription — 

By the pale lamp of night, 

I seek to obtain 
True Wisdom's pure light, 

Your favor to gain, 

Charles was not dilatory in presenting to 
Emily a Rose, accompanied with the senti- 
ment — 

The delicate hue, 

Which tinges the Rose — 

If poets say true — 

The feelings disclose. 
'Tis thus nature's blush yoiir innocence shows, 
Since from purity springs the bloom of the Rose. 

No one was neglected or overlooked ; an 
interchange of sentiments passing between all 
present, not omitting Emma and Julia, both 
of whom participated in the pleasure. To 
Emma was presented a Carnation, with the 
motto — 

Affection is the flower of sweetest perfume. 

In your heart may it glow with unfading bloom. 


240 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

Julia received a July flower, with the in- 
scription — 

They in childhood their minds who improve, 
Merit will gain, and thus secure love. 

To one of the Miss Nevilles a Geranium 
{Pelargonium) was handed, with the senti- 
ment — 

Sweetness of temper to all imparts peace — 
Like the odor of leaves — that admits no decrease. 

The sentiment attached to the xVmaranth 
[Jlmaranthus) Mr. Arlington read with a little 
variation, as he presented that flower to Anne. 

Unfading this hue, which not time can remove ; 
'Tis of friendship the type — O may it prove love ! 

His manner, together with the tone of 
voice ill which this was uttered, implied a 
meaning, unobserved by all save Isabella, 
whose suppressed smile and penetrating 
glance— which Anne encountered oh her rais- 
ing her eyes — indicated that such was her 
interpretation of the sentiment, as tended to 


RURAL SKETCHES. 241 

heighten to a deeper glow the roseate hue 
which had suffused her cheeks. 

After the bouquettes were distributed, the 
party dispersed themselves in groups, either 
to stroll by the brook or in the more seclud- 
ed paths, or to frolic on the green ; till pru- 
dence admonished them to return to the 
Tiouse, to avoid exposure to the impending 
dampness of the air, which tlie declining Sun 
announced was rapidly approaching. 

Some few of the party lingered ; among 
whom were Mr. Arlington and Anne. But 
we are not privileged to disclose their con- 
versation ; except that the subject was so re-- 
plete with interest tliat a second summons to 
return awaited them, before they were con- 
scious of being the only truants of the party, 
and that — for a few brief moments — they 
were all the world to each other. 

To gratify the curiosity of our reader's — 
whose imagination leads them to anticipate 
such a catastrophe to this prolonged tete-a- 
tete — we will merely add, in closing these 
14* 


242 THE PASTIME OF LEARNING. 

sketches, that on the following day — when 
Anne was summoned to a private conference 
with her uncle — her tell-tale cheeks, and 
downcast eyes, betrayed that she was not ig- 
norant of the object of his request. And to 
confirm the probable conjecture of some of 
our readers — that the result of this interview 
was mutually agreeable to all the parties in- 
terested — would state, that a letter written by 
Anne to Isabella subsequent to this period, 
and some months after the marriage of the 
latter, announced that the appointed day for 
the solemnization of her own nuptials, with 
Mr. Arlington, was rapidly approaching. 


Library 
N, C. State Colleere 


IT^DEX TO THE PLATES. 


The first column in the following Table contains the 
Numbers which are enclosed in parentheses in the body ot 
the work ; the third column, the corresponding Figures on 
the Plates. Those parts of plants represented by the num- 
bers referring to the Dictionary, are not illustrated on the 
Plates. 


No. 

Plate 

Figure 

No. 

Plate 

Figure 

1 


. 96 

29 . 

. 4 . 

. 97 

2 

\ 4 

. 98 

30 . 

. 4 . 

. 105 

3 


. 96 

31 . 

. 4 . 

. 103 

4 


. ff97 

32 . 

. 4 . 

. 103 

5 


. i97, 109 

33 . 

. 4 . 

. 100 

6 


. 107 

34 . 

. 4 . 

. 118 

7 


. 31 

35 . 

. 4 . 

. 109 

8 


. a31 

36 . 

. . • 

. Dictionary 

9 


. bSl 

37 . 

. . 

. Dictionary 

10 


. 30 

38 . 

. 4 . 

. 104 

11 


. c30 

39 . 

. 4 . 

«106 

12 


. i30 

40 . 

. 4 . 

bl06 

13 


. fl30 

41 . 

. 4 . 

fl06 

14 


. 101,102,108 

42 . 

. 4 . 

. 110 

15 


. 96 

43 . 

. 4 . 

. Ill 

16 


. 94 

44 . 

. 3 . 

. 61 

17 


. . 93 

45 . 

. 4 . 

. 113 

18 


. 90 

46 . 

. 3 . 

. 62 

19 


. . 91 

47 . 

. 4 . 

. 112,114 

20 


. 92 

48 . 

. 3 . 

. 63 

21 


. . 95 

49 . 

. 4 . 

. 117 

22 


. . 96 

50 . 

. 4 . 

. 115 

23 


. . 98 

51 . 

. 4 . 

. 116 

24 


al09 

52 . 

. 4 . 

. 116 

25 


. bl09 

53 . 

. 3 . 

. 70 

26 


. . a98 

54 . 

. 3 . 

. 67 

27 


. ^98 

55 . 

. 3 . 

. 64 

28 


. . 99 
I4t 

56 . 

. 4 . 

. 90 


244 


INDEX TO THE FLATES. 


Plate 


Figure 

No. 

Plate 

Figure 

. 3 . . 66 

JOl . 

. 3 . 

. 73 

. 3 


. 68 

102 . 

. 3 . 

. 78 

. . 


. Dictionary 

103 . 

. 3 . 

. 85 

. 3 


. 69 

104 . 

. 2 . 

. 48 

. . 


. Dictionary 

105 . 

. 2 . 

. 51 



. Dictionary 

106 

. 3 . 

. 80 



. Dictionary 

107 . 

. 3 . 

. 81 



. 2 

108 . 

. 3 . 

. 82 



. 8 

109 > 

. 3 . 

. 86 



10 

IKV'^. 

. 3 . 

. 42,84 



. 1 

Ill . 

. 3 . 

. 77 



. 3 

112 . 

. 3 . 

. 72 



. 3 

113 . 

. 3 . 

. 83 



. 5 

114 . 

. 3 . 

. 87 



. 4 

115 . 

. 3 . 

. 79 



. 6, 7 

116 . 

. 3 . 

. 88 '■ 



. 9 

117 . 

. 3 . 

. 74^ 



24,28 

118 . 

. 3 . 

. 75 



24 

119 . 

. 2 . 

. 32 



28 

120 . 

. 2 . 

. 32 



28 

121 . 

. 2 . 

. 33 



27 

122 . 

. 2 . 

. 34 



119 

123 . 

. 2 . 

. 41 



11 

124 . 

. 2 . 

. 36 



29 

125 . 

. 2 . 

. 43 



15 

126 . 

. 2 , 

. 40 



17 

127 . 

. 2 . 

. 39 



19 

128 . 

. 2 . 

. 35 



14 

129 . 

. 2 . 

. 37 



Dictionary 

130 . 

. 2 . 

. 46 



27 

131 . 

. 2 . 

. 47 



120 

132 . 

. 2 . 

. 38 



22 

133 . 

. 2 . 

. 44 



21 

134 . 

. 2 . 

. 52 



18 

135 . 

. 2 . 

. 49 



26 

136 . 

. 2 . 

. 50 



15 

137 . 

. 2 . 

. 53 



23 

138 . 

. 2 . 

. 54 



20 

139 . 

. 2 . 

. 56 



12 

140 . 

. 2 . 

. 58 



16 

141 . 

. 2 . 

. 55 

. 3 '. 


65 

142 . 

. 2 . 

. 57 

. 3 


76 

143 . 

. 2 . 

. 59 

. 3 


71 

144 . 

. 2 . 

. 60 


PLATE J. 



I'J.ATE a. 



T'XATE m. 



JPLAIETfr 



BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 


Acute. Any angle in mathematics, is acute in botanical lan- 
guage. 

JEquaiis polygamia. The first order of the Syngenesia class, 
in which the florets of the disk and of the ray are all 
perfect. 

Aggregate. Many florets springing from the same recepta- 
cle. 

Aigrette. Egret. The feathery, or hairy crown of seeds. 
It is termed stiped, when supported on footstalks ; sim- 
ple, when several hairs are connected without branches; 
plumose, when other hairs are arranged on its sides, like 
feathers. 

AlgcB. The fourth order of the Cryptogamia class, which 
consists of aquatics of fresh water, and of sea weeds. 

Alternate. Branches and leaves, arranged upon opposite 
sides and at different distances on the stem, or other sup- 
porters. 

Ament. A calyx consisting of an assemblage of flower- 
bearing scales which enclose the stamens and pistils — if 
the flower is not abortive. 

Angiospermia. Tlie second order of the Didynamia class, 
in which the seeds are enclosed in a capsule. Aggas, cap- 
sule ; sperma, seed. 

Annmt^. Applied to those plants which spring from the 
seed, perfect fruit, and die in the same year. 

Anther. The essential part of the stamens, containing the 
pollen. 

Apex. The terminal end, or tip. 

Appendage. Fulcrum. Those organs which are connected 
15 


246 DICTIONARY. 

with the herbage of a plant, but are not essential, or uni- 
versal. 
Aquatic. Growing in or near the water. 
Aril. Theca. The outer coat of a seed which falls off on ri- 
pening. 
Awn. A slender process or beard that proceeds from the 

top or back of a glume calyx. 
Axil. The angle formed by the insertion of a leaf or pe- 
tiole Avith the stem. 
Bacca. Berry. A pulpy pericarp which encloses seeds with- 
out covering them with capsules, or splitting into valves, 
— as the Grape. 
Bell-form. Swelling out at the base, and without a tube. 
Applied to monopetaious corols, and sometimes to lilia- 
ceous £o\vcrs, and others. 
Berry. Kacca. An assemblage of smaller berries are com- 
pound, as the Raspberry. 
Biennial. Springing up one summer; flowering and dying 

the next. 
Bipinnatc. The general petiole having a second range, with 

pinnate leafets on each side of them. 
Bipinnatifid. When the divisions of a pir^natifid leafet are 

also pinnatifid. \ 

Biternate. Having the petiole ternate, with each division 

of it bearing three leafets. 
Blooming. AVhen all the parts of a flower are in perfection. 
Blossom. The petals or corol. 

Botany, from Botane, for an herb. It is the science by which 
we discover the name of a plant, that is otherwise un- 
known to us — and by wliich we obtain a knowledge of 
its uses, botli medical and economical. 
Bract. The floral leaf, which differs in form or color, or 

both, from the otlier leaves of the plant. 
Buds. They are defended by scales ; generally of a glutin- 
ous substance ; and are the winter residence of leaves and 
flowers, in all but torrid climates. 
Bulb, from Bulhus. Though we call these roots, they are 
more propei'ly buds, or the winter residence of future 
plants. 
Bulbous root. Fleshy. 

Bulbulus. Lateral bulbs shooting from larger ones. 
Caducous. That part of a plant which fixlls off earlier than 
the otheis — or than is usual, compared with the same part 
in other plants. 


DICTIONARY. 247 

Caliculatus. Having a small outer calyx. 

Calyptre. The veil, cap or hood, of pistillate mosses. 

Calyx, from Kalux. The external covering or lower part of 

a flower ; generally green, and of a leafy texture. 
Cap it ate. Head- fo r m . 
Campanulatc . Bell-form corol. 
Capillary. Hair-form. 
Capsule. A dry pericarp, which generally opens by valves 

or pores, or falls oft' entire with the seeds. 
Carpogenation, comprises the flower and the fruit. 
Cartilaginous. Hard, and rather flexible. 
Caryophyllcous. Having five regular petals, with long claws, 

enclosed in a tubular calyx. 
Catkin. An ament. 
Caulis, or tidge. TJie chief bearing stem of all phenof^a- 

mous plants, except the grasses — as the trunk of the Oak, 

and the stalk of Mullein. 
Cauline. Caulis. 
Ciliate, applies to parallel hairs, or bristles, on the edges of 

leaves, resembling eyelashes. 
Cirrus, or tendril. A filiform appendage which serves as 

a support to climbing or creeping plants. 
Citrum. Applied by some botanists to the Orange and Lem- 
on, as more appropriate than berry. 
Class. The arranging of plants by a system. 
Claw. The lower part of the petal of a polypetalous corol, 

by which it is inserted on the calyx or receptacle. 
Cle/t. yiit down, with straight edges, not extending half 

way to the base. 
Climbing. Ascending by means of tendrils or leaf stalks, 

or cauline radicles. 
Clustered. Racemed. 
Coated. Layers or skins, as the Onion. 
Colored. All hues, except green, in botanical language. 
Columella. The central pillar in a capsule ; that which con- 
nects seeds in a pericarp. 
Common, applies to the sustaining of several similar parts. 
Complete, applies to those flowers which are furnished 

with both calyx and corol. When the corol is wanting, 

the flower is termed incomplete ; when it is destitute of a 

calyx, the flower is naked. 
Compound. Consisting of numerous sessile florets on the 

same receptacle, each containing five stamens united by 

their anthers. 
Connate. When the bases of leaves that arc opposite grow 


248 DICTIONARY. 

together, and form in appearance one leaf. This term ap-* 
plies also to anthers when united. 

Corcle. The heart of the seed — the rudiments of the new 
plant. 

Cordate. Heart-form, or an ovate leaf, hollowed at the 
base. 

Coiiaceotis. Leathery. 

Cornu. A horn, or spur. 

Corol. From corona, the Latin for crown. The colored blos- 
soms or petals of a flower. 

Cortex. Bark. 

Corymb. Inflorescence, resembling an umbel ; but it differs 
from it in having the peduncles take their rise at various 
distances along the main stem. 

Cotyledons. The thick fleshy lobes of seeds, which gene- 
rally become thick succulent leaves, after they rise out of 
the ground. 

Creeping. Branching horizontally — running along tlie 
ground. 

Crcnatc. Rounded uniform notches, that arc not directed 
tow^irds the apex or base. 

Crcnulate. Fine crenatures. 

Crown. Feathers or hairs, on some seeds. 

Cruciform. Corols with four regular petals, the border 
forming a cross. 

Crypfogiimia. From kruptos, for concealed ; games, for 
marriage. The last class in the Linnasan artificial system, 
and is distinguished exclusively by its natural afiinities. 

Culinary. Adapted to cookery. 

Culm. The stem of grain and the grasses. 

Cup-form. Hollow within. 

Cuticle. The outside coat of bark. It is transparent, du- 
rable, and has no life. 

Cyllndric. Circular, of nearly equal dimensions through 
the whole length. 

Cyme. Inflorescence that has the appearance of an umbel, 
in having its general flower-stalks proceed from one cen- 
tre ; but difFers from it in their being variously and alter- 
, nately subdivided. 

Dccandria. The name of the tenth class, which contains 
leu stamens. Also the name of the tenth order, in those 
classes which have the names and characters of their or- 
ders taken from the first thirteen classes. 

Deciduous. Falliiig off at the decline of the year. 


DlCTIOxVARY. 249 

Dccovrpound. When a divided petiole has a compound leaf 
on each part. 

Decurrcnt. A leaf extending down the stem, below the 
place of insertion, giving it the appearance of wings. 

Dehiscent. The natural opening of capsules, 

Deka. Greek numeral for two. 

Dentate. Projections from the margin of a leaf, of its own 
substance, which are neither scrratures nor crenatures. 

Dladeiphia. Tiie name of the seventeenth class, in which 
the stamens are united by their filaments in two sets. 

Diandrki. The name of tiie second class, which contains 
two stamens. 

Didyjiamia. The name of the fourteenth class, which con- 
tains four stamens, two of them uniformly the longest. 

Digitate. A compound leaf, in which the base of several 
leafels rests on the end of one petiole. 

Digynia. The name of the second order in each of the 
first thirteen classes. Two styles. 

Dicpxia. The name of the twenty-first class, in which the 
stamens and pistils are on separate plants. 

Dis. Greek numeral for two. 

Discoid. Compound flowers, in which all the florets are tu- 
bular, and not capitate. 

Disk. The summit or centre of a compound flower. The 
term is also applied to the aggregate florets of umbels. 

Dissepiment. The thin partition that divides the cells from 
each other in a silique. 

Dodecandria. The name of the eleventh class, having 
fiom twelve to nineteen stamens, not united by their fila- 
ments. 

Dodcka. Greek numeral for twelve. 

Drupe. A thick fleshy pericarp, enclosing a nut or stone. 

Downy. Tomentose. 

Egg-form. Ovate. 

Egret. Aigrette. 

Eikosi. Greek numeral for twenty. 

Endcka. Greek numeral for eleven. 

Ennea. Greek numeral for nine. 

Epta, pronounced hepta. Greek numeral for seven. 

Evergreen. Those plants which retain their leaves through 
the year. 

Ex, pronounced hex. Greek numeral for six. 

Exotic. Plants tlmt do not grow spontaneously in that coun- 
try. 


250 DICTIONARY. 

Farina. Pollen. 

Fascicle. Flowers that are level-topped, with their foot- 
stalks irregular. 

Ferns. Filices. 

Fibre. Thread-form. 

Filament. That part of the stamen which supports the an- 
ther. 

Filices. The first order of the Cryptogamia class. 

Floral. Relating to a flower. 

Floret. One of the number of those which constitute ag- 
gregate or compound flowers. 

Foliaris. Cirrxis. A tendril on a leaf. 

Follicle. A pericarp with one valve, which opens length- 
wise on one side only. 

Footstalk. A term used indiscriminately for peduncle and 
petiole. 

Frond. A leaf-like substance, from or within which the 
fruit is produced. It applies exclusively to the class Cryp- 
togamia. 

Frustranea. The third order of the Syngenesia class, in 
which the ray florets are neutral. 

Fulcrum. Appendage, support. 

Fungi. The sixth order of the Cryptogamia class. 

Funnel-form. A corol, tubular at the base, with the border 
gradually expanding. 

Fusiform. Spindle-form. Applied to a root that is thick at 
the top, and tapering downwards. 

Generic character. Confined to the definition of the flow- 
er and fruit. 

Generic name. The name of a genus. 

Genus, applies to a number of plants which are alike in 
the flowers and fruit. They also possess similar medical 
qualities, though in different degrees. 

Germ. The base of the pistil, which becomes the pericarp 
and seed. 

Gland. Applied to hairs, or other appendages, which serve 
for secretions. 

Globose. Spherical, as a ball. 

Glume. The calyx of grasses, consisting of scales or husks. 

Glutinous. Having more or less of an adhesive property. 

Granulated. In the form of grains. Applied to roots. 

Gymnospcrmia. From the hatin gumnos, naked; spermaj 
seed. Name of the first order of the fourteenth class. 

Gynandria. From ^une, for female 3 an(Zra, for male. The 


DICTIONARY. 


251 


name of the nineteenth class, in which the stamens are 

inserted on some part of the pistil. Stamen and pistil 

united. 
Hair. Pilus. An excretion of a bristly form, which leads 

off the fluid. 
Hastate. Halbert-form. A leaf with acute processes from 

each edge, near the base. 
Head. Tiiat kind of inflorescence in which the flowers 

appear of a globular form. 
Heart-form. Cordate. 
Hepatica>. The third order of the Cryptogamia class. The 

plants of this order are by Linnaeus comprised under the 

Algse order. 
Heptagijnia. The name of the seventh order, in the first 

thirteen classes. 
Heptandria. The name of the seventh class, from epta, 

seven ; andra, male. Also the name of the order in those 

classes where the previous classes are taken for orders. 
Herb. Any plant which has not a woody stem. 
Herbaceous. Not woody. 
Herbage. This term is applied to all the plant except the 

root and carpogenation. 
Herbarium. Hortus-siccus. A collection of dried speci- 
mens. 
Hexagonal. Six-sided. 
Hexagynia. From ex', six ; ^wne, female. The name of the 

sixth class, which contains six stamens. 
Hilum. The scar or mark On a seed, to which the thread 

is attached that conveys the nutriment, till the seed is 

ripe. 
Hirsute. Hairy. Distinct, straight hairs. 
Hispid. Bristly. Very stifl" hairs. 
Horn. Spur. A process from the base of a calyx, corol, or 

nectary. 
Husk. The larger kind of a glume calyx. 
Icosandria. From cikosi, for twenty ; andra, male. The 
name of the twentieth class, having twenty or more sta- 
mens inserted upon the calyx. 
Imperfect. Destitute of stamen or pistil. 
Incomplete. See complete. 

Indigenous. Plants that grow naturally in a country. 
Inferior. When the corol is situated below the germ, it is 

called inferior. 
Inflated. As if blown out with wind. 


252 DICTIONARY. 

InJlorcsuMce. The manner in which flowers are situated 
upon plants. 

Involucre. That calyx which is at a distance from the flow- 
er, and never encloses it. 

IrritabUity . The power of being excited by motion. 

Keel. The lower petal of the papilionaceo\as corol — of the 
form of a boat, and generally enclosing the stamens and 
pistils. 

Knobbed. Tuberous root, as the potato. 

Labiate. A two-lipped corol, which is divided at the top 
in two parts. 

Ijinceolaie. Of the form of the ancient lance, tapering from 
near the base to the apex. The length greatly exceeds 
the breadth. As the willows. 

Lateral. On one side. 

Lmf. That part of vegetables which presents more of its 
surface to view than all the other parts. It consists prin 
cipaliy of the cellular integuments, covered with the cu- 
ticle. 

Leafet. One of the leaves which constitute a compound 
leaf. 

Leaf -stalk. Petiole. 

Leathery. Coriaceous. 

Legume. A pericarp or pod, without a longitudinal parti- 
tion, with the seeds attached to one margin only. 

Liber. The innermost layer of the bark. 

Lichenes. The fifth order of the Cryptogamia class. In 
the Linna?an system it is included in the Alga? order. 

Ligulate. The floret in compound flowers, .v.'hich. consists 
of a petal formed like a strap, and tubular only at its base. 

Liliaceous. A corol which has six petals, spreading gradu- 
ally from the base, and exliibiting a bell-form appearance. 

Limb. The horizontal spreading part of a monopetalous co- 
rol. 

Linear. A narrow leaf, with parallel sides of nearly the 
same length throughout, and pointed at one or both ends ; 
as the grasses. 

Lipped. Labiate. 

Lobe. Divisions of aleaf tliat are rounded, and deeply parted. 

Lament. A legume with transverse partitions. Applied to 
papilionaceous flowers, that are not perfect. 

Loose. Open, not compact. 

Lurid. A dull color. Most plants with lurid petals are poi- 
sonous. ' 


DICTIONARY. 253 

Lyratc. A pinnatifid loaf, with the largest division at tho 
apex, and gradually diminishing towards tlio base. 

Margin. Border. The circumference, or edgd. 

Medicinal. Plants that possess such properties as to entitle 
them to a place in the materia medica. 

McduUa. Pith. 

Membi'anaccous. Thin and colorless, and nearly transpa- 
rent. 

Method. Arrangement of plants in classes, orders, &c. 

Midrib. The main rib of a leaf, extending from the stem to 
the apex. 

Monaddphia. The name of the first class, from monos, one ; 
delphos, brotherhood. 

Monandria. From monos, one ; andra, male. 

Moncecia. The name of the twentieth class, from monos, 
one ; oiA;o5, house — in which the stamens and pistils are in 
separate flowers on the same plant. 

Monogijnia. Monos, one ; gimc, female. One pistil. The 
name of the first order in the first thirteen classes. 

MonopetaJous. Having one corol, or petal. 

Monos. Greek numeral for one. 

Monopliylious. Monos, one ; phyUo?i leaf Consisting of 
one leaf. 

MucvGnatc. A leaf with a round or acute termination, tip- 
ped with a prickle. > 

Musci. The second order of the class Cryptogamia. 

JVaked. Destitute of a calyx. 

Natural orders. The arrangement of plants according to 
their natural afiinities, without regard to their artificial 
characters. 

JVcccssaria polygamia. Tlie fourth order of the Syngene- 
sia class, in which the florets of the disk are staminate, 
and those of the ray pistillate. 

Nectary. That part of the flower which secretes honey ; 
and applied to any other appendage to the flower that 
has no other name. 

Nerved. Leaves that have rib-like fibres extending in par- 
allel lines their whole length. 

Neutral. Having neither stamens nor pistils. 

Notched. Crenate. 

Nuchtts. Both the inner seed, or kernel, and the shell, or 
putamen, of a nut. 

Nat. Nucleus. 

Obcordate. Heart-form, with the narrowest end in-scrted 
upon the stem. 


254 DICTIONARY. 

Obtuse. An apex more or less rounded. 
Octandria. From octo, for eight; andra, for male. The 
name of the eighth class, which has eight distinct stamens. 
It is also the name of the eighth order of those classes 
where the previous classes are takenfor orders. 
Octo. Greek numeral for eight. 

Octogynia. From octo, eight ; gvne, female. Having eight 
pistils. The name of the eighth order in the first thirteen 
classes. 
Opaque. Not transparent or shining. 
Orbicular. Nearly round, or circular. 
Oval. The length exceeding the breadth, having both ends 

alike. 
Ovate. Resembling an egg in fprm, cut lengthwise. 
Palate. A prominence in the lower lip of a labiate corol, 

which nearly closes the throat. 
Palmate. A leaf resembling the hand with spread fingers. 
Panicle. That kind of inflorescence which has the pedi- 
cels along the main peduncle divided. 
Papiliotiaceous. A corol that is irregular, and spreading. 
When complete, it consists of a banner, wings, and keel. 
Parallel. Opposite sides, running equally distant, or near- 
ly so, from each other. 
Parasitic. That which draws support from another plant. 
Parenchyma. The thick succulent part of leaves, between 
the two cuticles, around the pith of herbs ; and the pulpy 
part of apples. 
Partial. Applicable to an entire part of a general whole. 
Parted. Deeply divided, almost to the base. 
Pectinate. Finely pinnate, or pinnatifid, resembling the 

teeth of a comb. 
Pedate. A leaf that resembles a bird's foot. 
Pedicel. A partial peduncle, that supports the flower only. 
Peduncle. A stem which bears the flower and fruit, and is 

not destitute of leaves. 
Peltate. When a petiole or style is attached to the disk of 

the under side of a leaf or stigma. 
Pentagynia. From pcnte, five ; gune, female. The name 
of the fifth order of the first thirteen classes, having five 
styles or sessile stigmas. 
Pentandria. Pente, five ; andra, male. The name of the 

fifth class, having five distinct stamens. 
Pepo. The name of the pericarp for Melon and Pumpkin — 
regarded by some botanists as more applicable than berry,, 
which designates them, 


DICTIONARY. 255 

Pente. Greek numeral for five. 

Perennial. Continuing more than two years. 

Perfect Jioiccrs. Having botli stamens and pistils. 

Perfoliate. A leaf with the stem running through it. 

Perianth. Peri, about ; anlhos, flower. That calyx which 
is contiguous to, and surrounds the other parts of a flower. 

Pericarp. Pe/i, about; karpos, fruit. The pod, shell, or 
pulpy substance, that encloses the seed. 

Permanent. That part of a plant which remains longer, 
compared with other parts, than is usual for similar parts 
on most plants. 

Pdrsonate. Labiate. 

Petal. The colored blossom, or leaf of the corol. 

Petiole. The footstalk of a leaf. 

Plienogamous. From p/mwio, to show. Those plants which 
have their stamens and pistils sufficiently apparent for 
classification. 

Pilose. Hairy. Distinct straight hairs. 

Pilus. A haif. 

Pinnate. A leaf with distinct leafets arranged on oppo- 
site sides of the petiole. 

Pinnatlfid. A simple leaf, divided transversely into seg- 
ments, not extending to the midrib. 

Pistil. The central organ of a llower. 

Pistillate flowers. Having pistils, and being destitute of sta- 
mens, as the fertile flowers in tlie twentieth and twenty- 
first classes. 

Pith. The spongy sui)stancc in the stems and roots of most 
plants. 

Plant. Any substance which grows from seed. 

Plumose. \Vhen a hair has other hairs arranged on each 
side of it. 

Pod. That kind of a pericarp which is either a legume or 
siliquc. 

Pollen is -the substance* of a dusty or mealy nature, which 
is contained in the cells of anthers. 

Pohis. Many. 

Polyadelphia. Polus, many ; adelphos, brother ; many broth- 
erhoods. The name of the class that has been abolished. 

Polyandria. Polus, many ; andra, male; many stamcned. 
The name of the thirteenth class, in which the stamens are 
more than twenty in number, and inserted upon the re- 
ceptacle. Also the name of the thirteenth order, in Ihoso 
classes that take the preceding classes for the orders. 


256 DICTIONARY. 

Pohjgamia. Many unions. From polus, many ; gamia, 
marriage. The name of a class established by Lianeeus, 
that has been abolished. 

Polijgynia. Polus, many ; gune, female ; many styles. The 
name of the thirteenth order, containing more than ten 
styles. 

Polyp ctalous. A.corol having more than one petal. 

Polyphyllous. A calyx which consists of more than one 
leaf 

Pome. A pulpy pericarp, without valves, having the seeds 
enclosed within it, in a capsule. 

Pores. Porous. With holes. 

Prickle. Aculeus. A sharp process arising from the bark 
only. 

Prominent. Standing out more than is usual in other plants. 

Proper. Partial. 

Pruina. The mealy or hoary appearance on the surface of 
peaches and plums. 

Pubescent. Having hairs, wool, or down. 

Pulpy. A tenacious kind of parenchyma. 

Putamen. Nucleus. A nut shell. 

Quinate. Five leafets on one petiole. 

Raceme. That kind of inflorescence in which the flowers 
have undivided pedicels, arranged along a general pedun- 
cle. 

RacJds. The filiform receptacle which connects florets in 
a spike. 

Radiate. The spreading florets around the margin of a com- 
pound flower. 

Radicle. Proceeding directly from the root, without an in- 
tervening stalk. 

Ray. The marginal florets of a compound flower, and the 
outer florets of an umbel. 

Receptacle. The point of connection, or base, which sus- 
tains the other six parts of a flower, at the end of the 
stem. 

Reniform. Kidney-form. 

Reticulate. Veins crossing each other like net-work. 

Retuse. A leaf with the sinus broad and shallow. 

Ribbed. Nerved. 

Ringent. Labiate. 

Roots. The descending parts of vegetables. 

Rosaceous. A corol formed of round spreading petals, 
with no claws, or very short ones. 


DICTIONARY. 257 

Runcinate. Pinnatifid, with the segments acute, and point- 
ing backwards. 

Salvcr-form. A corol that is tubular for most of its length, 
with a flat spreading limb on the top. 

Samara. A winged pericarp, not opening by valves. 

Sap. Camb. 

Scape. A stem bearing the flower and fruit, which springs 
naked from the earth. 

Scion. Shoots proceeding laterally from the roots. 

Seed. The essential part which contains the rudiment of a 
new plant. 

Segment. The parts into which a calyx, corol, or leaf, is 
divided. 

Scgregata jJolygainia. The fifth order of the Syngenesia 
class, in which the florets are all perfect, each having a 
perianth of its own, on a common receptacle. 

Sericeus. Silky. Soft close-pressed hairs. 

Serrate. A leaf with sharp notches resembling the teeth of 
a saw, and pointing towards the extremity. 

Serrulate. A serrate leaf having the teeth serrate again. 

Sessile. When the filament or style is wanting, the anther 
or stigma is termed sessile. 

Sheathing. A leaf that extends down the stem, sheathitig 
it, as in most of the grasses. 

Shrub. A vegetable with a woody stem. 

SlUculosa. The name of the first order of the fifteenth 
class, in which the length and breadth of the pods are 
nearly equal. 

Silique. That kind of pod which has a longitudinal parti- 
tion, with the seeds attached to both edges alternately. 

Siliquosa. The name of the second order of the fifceenth 
class, having pods with the length more than double 
their breadth. 

•SlUaj. Sericeus. 

Simple. Undivided. Neither compound nor aggregate. 

Sinuate. Sinus, a bay. Having the margin hollowed, with 
rounded incisions. 

Sitting. Sessile. 

Solid. That kind of bulbous root which applies to the Tar- 
nip. 

Solitary. Standing alone. 

Spadix. An elongated receptacle which proceeds from a 
spathe. 


258 DICTIONARY. 

Spathe. That kind of calyx which at first encloses a flow- 
er, and after it expands is more or less remote from it. 

Species. The lowest division of the arrangement of vege- 
tables. 

Specific name. A botanical term for what Linnaeus called 
the trivial names. 

Spike. Numerous florets arranged along the general recep- 
tacle, without partial pedicels, or with very short ones. 

Spindle-form. A fusiform root. 

Spine. A thorn. 

Spur. A horn. 

Stalk. Stem. The main supporter of the carpogenation 
and herbage. 

Stamens. The part of the flower next to the central or- 
gan, consisting of knobs of a glutinous or mealy substance, 
placed on filamentous organs. 

Staminatc. Having stamens only, sterile. 

Stellate. Whorl. 

Stem. Stalk. 

Sterile. Staminate flowers. 

Stigma. That which terminates the pistil. 

Stings. Hair-like processes, which cause the sensation of 
itching. 

Stipe. The lower part of the midrib of Ferns. 

Stipule. A leafy appendage, diflei-ing from leaves, and si- 
tuated at the base of footstalks. 

Strap-form. Ligulate. 

Strobile. An ament with woody scales. 

Style. That part of a pistil which serves to elevate the 
stigma. 

Submersed. Growing under the water. 

Succulc7it. Abounding in juice. This term also designates 
the pulpy part of leaves, though not juicy. 

Superflua polygamia. The name of the second order of 
the eighteenth class, in which the florets of the disk arc 
perfect, and those of the ray pistillate. 

Superior. When the flower is situated above the germ. 

Suture. The seam-like appearance where the valves meet in 
a legume, 

Syngenesia. The name of the eighteenth class, from tl»e 
Latin sun, for together ; genesis, ibr springing up ; Vt^hich 
contains five stamens, united by their anthers in a tube, 
the flowers being compound. 


DICTIONARY. 259 

System. The arrangement of natural bodies by their as- 
sumed characters. 
Tegument. The skin or bark of seeds. 
Tendril. A filiform appendage which serves as a support 

to climbing or creeping plants. 
Terviinal. The point or end of a stem, branch, or style, 

&c. 
Ternate. Three leafets inserted on one petiole. 
Tetradynamia. From tettarcs, four ; dunamis, power. The 

name of the fifteenth class, which has six stamens ; four 

of them uniformly longer than the other two. 
Tetragynia. Tettares, four ; gune, female ; four styles. 

The fourth order of the first thirteen classes. 
Tetrandria. From tettares, four ; andra, male. The name 

of the fourth class, which has four stamens. 
Tettares. Greek numeral for four. 
Theca. Aril. The term applied by some botanists to 

those pericarps which split on ripening. 
Thyrse. A panicle or bunch, of a close compact appear 

ance, and ovate form. 
Tidge. Caulis. 

Tomentose. Downy. Fine cotton-like down. 
Transverse. Cross-wise. Applied to the partitions of a 

loment. 
Treis. Greek term for three. 
Triandria. From treis, three ; andra, male. The name of 

the third class, which has three stamens. Also the name 

of the third order in those classes which take the names 

and characters of the preceding classes for orders. 
Trigynia. Treis, three ; gune, female ; three stylos. The 

name of the third order in the first thirteen classes. 
Truncate. A leaf with the terminal tube appearing as if 

cut ofi". 
Tuberous. A root of a thick fleshy substance, but not of a 

regular globular form. 
Tubular. Being in the form of a tube. 
Tubulous. Discoid. Those florets of a compound flower 

which are not ligulate. 
Tunicate. Coated. 
Twining. Ascending spirally. 
Valve. The leaves or chaft' of a glume calyx, and those 

parts of a pericarp which separate on ripening. 
Vaulted. The upper lip of some labiate corols. 

lot 


260 DICTIONARY. 

Vegetable. An organized substance, consisting of the car- 
pogenation, root and herbage. 

Vegetable hmgdovi. Applied by Linnaeus to all the subjects 
of the science of Botany. 

Veined. A leaf with the fibres variously branched. 

Vcrticillatus. A whorl. 

Viridis. Green. 

Umbel. The inflorescense which consists of several flow- 
er stems, diverging from one place, of nearly equal length, 
bearing florets on their extremities. 

Wheel-form. A salver-form corol, with an extremely short 
tube, or without any. 

Whorl. That kind of inflorescence in which the flowers 
surround the stem in rings, one above the other. 

Wings. The side petals of a papilionaceous corol. 

Woody. Herbaceous. 


Errata. — Page 103, for Popo readPepo; p. 104, No. 50 
should be placed with the word " whorl " instead of " inflores- 
cence " ; p. 139, the reference 75 should be 85; p. 223, No. 144 
should have been inserted after the word " Fur>gi." 


DOMES'! iC 


lessonl. i^^ botany. 


'Wi 


